The final letter in UNITY stands for Yielding. There are two areas of our lives that require this of us. First, our submission to the Lordship of Christ. God placed Jesus in a position over us and exalts Him in that role. Because of this position we are called to submit to the Lordship of Christ and his authority.

  

After yielding our lives to Christ, we then have the capacity to submit to one another for the sake of the Gospel message moving forward. The driving reason to submitting to one another is found in John 17:23; “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (emphasis added).

 

We should be willing to yield our agendas, selfish desires, the need to win or always be right, to the greater goal of showing the love of Christ to a lost and dying world. How can we share the redemption story of Christ and the need to submit our lives to His saving grace if we ourselves are not willing to extend grace and yield for the sake of the Kingdom?

  

Are there areas of your life you need to yield to others? Do you find yourself needing to be on the “right” side of the situation when maybe you need to yield to the other person? Do you find it hard for yourself to extend grace to another believer, when in fact God has extended an overwhelming amount of grace to you? These are difficult questions to answer honestly, but key to building unity in the body of Christ.

  

Paul wrote the Ephesians a letter of encouragement and instruction. In chapter 5, verses 20-21, he boldly wrote: “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Our submission to one another is an outflow of our reverence or deep respect for Jesus Christ. We are not called to submit to one another out of fear – we are called to behave with respect because we love Christ.

  

Philippians 2:3 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition of conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” This verse is a direct reflection of exactly what Jesus Christ came to the earth to do. He came and was obedient to God to the point of dying on a cross for you and me. It seems the least we can do in our pursuit of being like Christ is to submit ourselves to God the Father and yield to our brothers and sisters in Christ when necessary for the sake of the Gospel.