In his letter to the church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul talks about the division between Jews and Gentiles. He then goes on to say that Jesus, through His atoning sacrifice, “has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14). Jesus’ death and resurrection indeed reconcile us to God, but those things also reconcile us to one another. If we wholeheartedly embrace the vertical reconciliation while ignoring the horizontal reconciliation, we’ve missed a big part of the gospel message.
The Bible declares that Jesus died “to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (John 11:52, my emphasis). 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that we are, collectively, the Body of Christ—the expression of Him and His nature—here on earth. How can we truly be that Body if we’re fractured into thousands of different pieces—denominations, etc.—that refuse to acknowledge one another?
I long for the day when we will all truly be one in heaven. At the same time, though, I believe that we should be experiencing at least a dimension of that here and now—certainly a greater dimension than we’ve seen heretofore.
What do you think?
To Make You Think 
You took the words right out of my mouth! The fragrance of grace, the contagious good news, is spread when we “love one another.” I don’t think we as the church understand the huge implications for getting this wrong or for getting it right. Unity is our inheritance. Let it begin with me!
Beck, thanks for the response and also for giving me the initial impetus to write this.
I just saw your reply to my reply. It excites me to enter into the conversation about unity and what that looks like with my brothers and sisters. I wrote a post on my blog about it today. http://beckfarfromhome.blogspot.com/2012/04/life-beyond-cross.html I’ve never seen a group of people up close and personal that could turn the world upside down, I’ve heard rumors, but I believe catching the fire of unity could be what does it!