Compartmentalized Life?

I was listening to the radio the other day and the person mentioned something about a compartmentalized life—keeping God in His box, work in one box, family, money, career, etc. That’s a concept that I have heard many times. But in my head, it connected to another passage that I had never thought of before.

Luke 11:17 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.”

When we divide ourselves, we are guaranteeing our own failure—guaranteeing our divided house will fall. We have so many differing priorities—so many different things that pull and hold our attention rather than the important things.
If we do not have an overarching, controlling, guiding factor—our house is divided and we will fall. We see this all too often—from mid-life crisis, to moral failure, to nervous breakdown.

What happens when the Temple of God wants to do something other than it’s intended purpose? What happens when the Temple is used to improve personal wealth, or become a Marketplace? When rooms & courtyards that are supposed to house temple artifacts or priests and other servants of worship are instead rented out to travelers, to store personal wealth or some other unholy purpose, a change is necessary. Jesus comes through, looks at the house divided and wants to clean it out. He sees that it is not fulfilling its purpose as a House of Prayer and a Light to the Gentiles—it is divided.

Even after it’s cleansing, it can just revert back to its old way. As a result, the temple was destroyed. It fell and has not been rebuilt in over 2000 years.
But the opposite of that can also be true. If a house divided will fall, then a house united will stand.

Scripture describes our bodies as the Temple of the Holy Spirit, it functions best and ideally when the temple is devoted to one goal and purpose: the Glory of God. Our lives then become something useful and capable of great things. Even if our circumstances are not good, we can still bring glory to God.

As individuals, imagine what we would be able to accomplish if we were truly undivided in our heart, soul, mind & strength? If we would really love Him with all of those parts, fully and not holding back, then we would truly be a fragrant offering to Him.

This is true for us as individuals, it is true also for us as the Body of Christ. That’s why Unity was such an important part of Jesus prayer in John 17. If not for the power of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, Christianity and the Church would have failed long ago. We would have fulfilled the words of Gamaliel in Acts 5:38-39—“Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

We are standing solely because Jesus promised that the gates of Hell would not be able to prevail against the Church He was establishing by His Blood. May we truly be a house undivided and instead a house united around our love for Jesus and our desire to fulfill our Calling to the Commission of proclaiming Him to the Nations.