¹⁹These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. ²⁰But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

Unity among Christians comes from embracing the truth, building our lives and ordering our behaviors on the true faith. The apostle Paul addresses this carefully and pointedly:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph. 4:4–6)

True unity builds on a solid foundation, the rock that keeps us steady amid life’s trials and the changing winds of popular culture.

While continuing to mock biblical, historical Christianity, popular culture has influenced widespread efforts to make the faith more palatable. The notion of “loving Jesus” has become a euphemism for conversion but puts the effort on what the human does, not what the Spirit does in salvation. The emphasis often portrays inferior motivations for conversion: to improve our lives, make us better people, get us excited about going to church. To be sure, Jesus often enhanced people’s lives by meeting their “felt needs,” like feeding them when they were hungry and healing the sick. But that was not the totality of Jesus’ message of good news.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the one who brought the good news, set the stage at the beginning of His earthly ministry when He preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). And just before He left, He told of the coming of the Holy Spirit, who would carry on the work of bringing people to repentance: “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). The apostle Paul was on board with this when he wrote, “[O]ur gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5). The gospel message is to be saturated with the Holy Spirit, not devoid of it.

The good news is not that we “get” to live pleasurably—that will result in division. Instead, the Spirit’s “best practices” for living can be summed up here: 1) build our lives on the foundation of the holy and accepted apostolic faith, 2) pray with the consciousness of and reliance on the Spirit’s power, 3) center on God’s love for us, not our love for Him, 4) focus toward the full manifestation of God’s mercy at Christ’s return and our eternal life with Him.

Lord, help me stay on task with these “best practices” for Christian living.