“Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged.”
Colossians 3:18-21 NLT
It is in the context of Christian unity that we love each other. Some have tried to turn this into a means of control, believing that we ought to love each other because it maintains a system. Although this is true that love is the glue that holds God’s system together. The reason we ought to love can be akin to the reason we breathe. Yes, it makes us survive, but it is something that is autonomic. We breathe because we are designed to. It is a natural state of being an image bearer of God. In this vain, we ought to love our wives and children and parents. In this vain, we ought to be submissive and tenderhearted. To not be these things not only kills the system we operate under but, more importantly, makes us less than human. Because to be human is to bear God’s image and his image is love as described by the life and attitude of Jesus Christ. We must be unified because this is a fundamental aspect of what it means to be a follower of Christ and an image bearer of God.
JOSH McGARY. COM 