A company might have executives setting policy and strategy, engineers designing products, managers handling personnel and others handling various functions. They all do different things -- but if they're doing them with a shared underlying purpose, the company -- and the individuals in it -- will likely be successful. The Lord wants all human society to function in a similar way. We have different skills and individual loves, but if we all share a mutual love -- a love of serving others -- then society will function as one, will be a reflection of heaven and will be a good receptacle for the Lord's love. This can also happen within each of us, as we unify our talents and ideas around a central love. And in an abstract sense, it illustrates how a wide collection of varying ideas can be unified around a shared good intention. That is the kind of love pictured when “one” is used in the Bible, either as a specific number or in the sense of several people or objects “being one.” In more casual references -- when used to identify a specific person or object -- the meaning is relatively literal, and is connected to that person or object.

Title: The Heaven Project

Topic: Salvation

Summary: Heaven is the ultimate purpose behind creation. It is an infinite and eternal project involving ever increasing numbers, variety, and connections, to embody God with greater and greater resolution. Yet it also gives us more and more peace.

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
Psalms 126
Matthew 10:29-30; 13:23, 47
Mark 10:29
Genesis 1:27-28; 13:16; 22:17
Isaiah 9:6-7
Job 8:7; 15:15
1 Kings 8:27
Luke 16:13-16
John 14:2-3; 12:24
Romans 12:1-5
1 Corinthians 12:12, 27
Psalms 132:8-14