Life Together
Edited directly from the sermon transcript of Matthew Miller’s message at Highland Hills Church of Christ on September 20, 2026. Adapted for length and readability while preserving his voice and message.
We are people who pride ourselves on independence. As Americans, it’s woven into our foundations. We value freedom, personal choices, achievements, preferences, and sometimes our personal space.
Independence is part of growing up. We enter life dependent on our parents. Then we learn to do things ourselves. Of course, when a toddler decides to do absolutely everything themselves, that isn’t always the best idea. Growing into independence has its challenges.
Our world has capitalized on personal preference. You can customize everything. We used to say necessity was the mother of invention. Now sometimes it seems to be novelty: everything should fit exactly who I am.
That way of thinking can carry into faith. It is true and important that we have a personal relationship with God through Jesus. But we also need to remember that Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. He brings us into a body, a people set apart.
What does it mean to share life as God’s people?
The New Testament repeatedly speaks of “one another”: how we love, serve, and bear with one another. Jesus says his disciples will be known by their love for one another. Before we can understand our shared life, we need to look at God’s life.
Through Christ, we are reconciled and brought near to God, adopted into his family. Through the Spirit, God dwells in us. That is a powerful invitation.
In Ephesians 4, Paul urges us to walk worthy of our calling, with humility, gentleness, patience, and love, “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
The first three chapters describe what God has done: blessed us in Christ, chosen us, adopted us, redeemed and forgiven us, and brought people together through the cross. Then Paul says, “Therefore.” Because of those truths, this is how we live.
Everything he asks of us flows from what God has already done. Walking with someone implies relationship and communication. Our life together needs humility, gentleness, long-suffering, and bearing with one another in love.
Long-suffering has a little sting to it, doesn’t it? I’m willing to suffer a long time with another person for the sake of the Lord. Bearing with others means taking on their concerns and cares, more than merely putting up with them.
Paul says to keep the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit is not divided. We are called to preserve the unity God gives to his church.
One thing that drew me to our restoration heritage was its beautiful vision of unity. If we return to Scripture and embody the life of the early church, that unity should be seen wherever the church lives. We don’t need to improve on what God has established. We need to be that kind of people.
Paul repeats “one” seven times: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. These things find their oneness in their source: God himself.
Our unity is rooted in him. Personalities, political agendas, and the pressures of our age can divide us when they become central. Christ needs to remain at the center.
Think about a magnifying glass—assuming you haven’t only used one to burn holes in paper or do other more nefarious things. The center is clearest. As you move toward the edges, the focus changes. When the church drifts away from Christ at the center, we lose focus too.
Other things can matter without becoming ultimately important.
Paul’s picture brings us back to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We use the word “Trinity” to describe what Scripture shows: three persons, one God. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, yet they share one divine life in love and community.
There is mystery here. Christians have struggled to put it into language. But the reality matters: God’s shared life creates beauty and brings forth creation. The God whose life is community calls a people into a life of love together.
What happens when we live that way? Healing, reconciliation, and beautiful new things. Hurts still occur, but forgiveness follows.
We gather to celebrate, yet sometimes we get so close we step on one another’s feet. No matter how much I try to waltz, I still step on my wife’s feet. I don’t mean to; it happens. Humility, forgiveness, and restoration are part of living close together.
We are united because we belong to the same God and share the same need for salvation in Jesus. Yet within that oneness, he gifts us differently.
Ephesians 4 describes gifts given through Christ’s victory: apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers, equipping the saints for ministry and building up the body. These gifts serve the whole church, helping us grow in the knowledge of Christ.
What God gives you is for others too. Your wisdom, encouragement, skills, teaching, compassion, leadership, or generosity may be what someone you encounter needs. You become a channel of God’s love.
The question is, “What am I called to offer the church?”
Our shared life helps us become more like Jesus. I remember reading an old account of a monk who lived on an island. His biographer described a wonderfully holy life, but said two times had been particularly difficult. Both were when somebody else moved onto the island.
You have to think that was in God’s plan.
It can sound wonderful to have a hut by a babbling brook, blossoms outside, a Bible on the table, and nothing but birds singing. Almost like Snow White: you sing, and the birds come flying in. But Jesus calls us to life together.
There are parts of Christlikeness God forms in us through other people. I learn patience around people who test it. I learn forgiveness because I’ve been hurt. I learn humility when people don’t recognize my importance. I learn gentleness when force is not the answer, and love by loving people who are not always lovable.
I learn to serve because someone needs what God has given me. I learn dependence because I cannot do everything myself. Nobody can.
Community is where Christ makes us mature. He forges us into people who look like him.
That life requires self-giving love, and it can be difficult. Sometimes we would rather do something else. But look at the extent Jesus went to show his love. While we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. His Spirit enables the life he calls us to share.
We learn to live together by learning from the life of God.
Christ offers life to the full and invites you into it. He died and rose to give victory over death and evil. We receive his gifts as we turn toward him, confess him as Lord, and are washed into new life through baptism.
He wants you to have that life with him and with his people.
