What happens when Christians don't get along?

Ephesians2:26-29
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 

I read a great devotion on Christian unity today.  It really hit home. As Christians we are all loved, forgiven, given peace, given joy, given strength. You are probably thinking, this doesn't sound new to anyone. Then...we step in and try to do things ourselves, our way, and we really mess it up.

We had some friends who are also Christians. I think we got along okay, maybe even better than that.  Then we started attending the same church. Strangely,  instead of growing stronger in faith together, everything changed for the worse. Eventually, instead of peace, joy, and love, there was discord, distrust, discomfort, and suspicion! You are wondering what happened? So am I!

Look at today's lesson though, I see that maybe we assumed everything would be snuggly and cuddly because we were (and are) all Christians, and we were going to the same church. What a snugly and cuddly little package deal, right?  Nothing is wrong with that picture, except Satan doesn't want that. 

Well, it turns out, snugly and cuddly take a whole lot of work, and all that work has to be based on the Cornerstone. If just one part is about us and what we want or what we want to feel instead of all about Christ, then the very opposite happens. The devil will have a foothold! And he waits for those moments, and then jumps in like a ferocious lion. 

Believe me, for us at this point in time,  the devil has a foothold in the relationship! He is tearing our relationship apart piece by piece, and it seems to be happening very easily. Now, let's not forget that for Satan to do this, we are probably making the mistakes ourselves, maybe because we felt so safe in the fact that we are all Christians. That safety allowed us to drop our guard. We said things we shouldn't have; we took offense where no offense was meant; we watched for the negative stuff. What fun Satan must have dividing Christians from the inside out! We didn't even see it coming! What is worse, we helped him because we let our guard down about what could happen if we shifted our focus from Christ to us and our snugly, cuddly relationship. 

All is not lost, though! We are all one in Christ. Our relationships will be renewed. Christ wins in the end. I am praying to focus on Ephesians 2 today! We are all heirs according to the promise, and we will not be lost as God holds all of us in His hands. Somehow,  despite our mistakes,  God will see us through this and we will come out on the other side next to God, stronger and more faithful Christians than we were before. 

Father,  please help us to remain strong in you, to focus on only you in order to demonstrate Christian unity.  Amen