This morning’s sermon was an exposition of John 14:19-24. Jesus was explaining how a Christian could be recognised. There were three positive points made by Jesus and one warning.

1. We would see Jesus – we would see him for who he is – our Lord and Saviour, and so love him.
2. We would know his commands and obey them. This is not to say we will be perfect, for original sin will cause us to fail. We will, however, endeavour to know his commands, trying to keep them to the best of our ability because we love him and when we fail, we acknowledge we have failed and seek forgiveness.
3. We would know his words, not just his commandments. If we love him, we would seek to know the mind of God and his will, that everything we do would be pleasing to him.

The warning was quite sobering though, “He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.” John 14:24.

This evening sermon was an in-depth look at Ephesians 4:1-7. A healthy church should have unity, although the nature of this unity is important. It is not that we are all clones, having the same culture, same ethnic background, same class background, same intellectual ability or anything like that. Rather, this unity is not human generated, but of the Spirit – of God – and rooted in the word of God. We should seek be be united in the truth, and not to disregard the truth for the sake of unity.

When disagreements and differences do arise, they should be handled with humility, gentleness, patience and forebearance, whilst still maintaining the truth.