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Key Bible Verse: He has broken down the wall of hostility that used to separate us (Ephesians 2:14). Bonus Reading: Acts 6:1-6

Long-haired, bearded Gilles and clean-shaven Doug were polar opposites. Doug, a Republican from a semi-rural California town, was the son of a worker in a nuclear defense lab. Gilles, the son of a pastor who'd been a radical activist, grew up in Africa and felt anything but patriotic toward the U.S.

When they began working together, Gilles and Doug didn't trust each other or respect the other's convictions. But we agreed together that God had put them on the same ministry team and just might be at work in their relationship. After four years of much work, forgiveness, and growing love, at Gilles's wedding, Doug stood with him as best man.

Jesus called people with very different backgrounds into relationship with Him and each other. Matthew collected taxes for the Romans; Simon the Zealot was committed to overthrowing the Romans. Jesus called both into His group of twelve, demonstrating that what bound them together was much greater than the differences that otherwise would have kept them apart. As the gospel takes root in people's lives, ethnic, social, political, and gender-based walls begin to come down.

—Richard Lamb in The Pursuit of God in the Company of Friends

My Response: How is our shared faith helping me relate to a "polar opposite" brother?

Thought to Apply: If we don't show love to one another, the world has a right to question whether Christianity is true.—FRANCIS SCHAEFFER (scholar, founder of L'Abri)

Adapted from The Pursuit of God in the Company of Friends (InterVarsity, 2003) by permission.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Give me the love it takes, Lord Jesus, to live in harmony with the people You died for.

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