Unity
“May they (believers) be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”—John 17:23
Jesus prayed for the believers who would come to know him in the future through the messages and teachings of the Apostles. That prayer was for us today. If you have believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, have received his offer of salvation, and have chosen to follow and obey him, then you are the object of this prayer. Jesus prayed that we, the believers, be in unity. And by our complete unity the world would know that God sent Jesus and that God loves us as adopted children of God just as he loved his only and unique son, Jesus Christ.
Yet the world does not seem to recognize that God sent Jesus or that God loves us just like he loves His son. And no wonder. History has demonstrated anything but unity among believers. Jewish believers wrestled with Gentile believers, finally reaching a compromise struck by the mother church in Jerusalem. Later there would be wars between the orthodox believers and various Christian “heresies” including Arianism, Gnosticism, Nestorianism and others. The church worked diligently to come up with various statements of faith which would be a ground of unity upon which all “true” believers would agree. Some of these Statements of Faith are The Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed, which are still used in our churches today. Those not subscribing to the Statements would be considered to be outside the faith and to be heretics. Unity was tattered and it was only going to get worse.
The Bishops of various churches began to fight over topics including which bishop had primacy. Eventually the church at Rome became preeminent in the east and the church at Constantinople became preeminent in the east. In time there would be a decisive break between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church for various historical reasons became various churches including the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church. Other churches associated with neither Catholic nor Orthodox. There were Egyptian churches, churches in India, churches in China and in many other areas of the world.
The Roman and Orthodox churches found it difficult to remain in unity with various heresies appearing such as the Paulicians in the East and Alibigenses in the West. Gradually, many other groups began to splinter off from both churches. The answer of the Catholic Church in the West included religious wars and inquisitions to root out heretics. Even with the arrival of Islam in the Eighth Century, some Christians in the East felt more comfortable under Islamic rule than they did under the authority of the Church at Constantinople.
Next came the Reformation. Fragmentation picked up speed. Martin Luther and John Calvin and others fragmented the Roman church into Protestant and Catholic. At the same time there were other smaller groups such as the Anabaptists which did not consider themselves either Protestant or Catholic. In addition, Henry VIII pried loose the church in England transforming much of it into what we know today as the Church of England.
Protestants themselves fragmented into a host of denominations which we see today. Today we see a host of historical well-known denominations, such as Baptists, Assemblies of God, Presbyterian, Methodist, Church of Christ, United Church of Christ, Lutheran, Episcopal ad nauseum.
Even simple denominations fragment. For instance, Baptist divided between Northern Baptist and Southern Baptist. Later there would be a host of Baptist denominations dividing sometimes on race, sometimes on doctrine. The point is not to review every denomination but simply to point out there where two or three are gathered together, one of the three will probably differ from others and start a new church. Where there is one denomination, there are a multitude of churches often disagreeing upon belief or church polity or even on the color of the carpet.
In the 20th Century churches again began to split over such items as Charismatic-Non-Charismatic. However, even Charismatic and Pentecostal churches could not maintain unity and the splits and new denominations continued unabated.
So the history of Christianity is characterized by anything other than unity. Instead its defining character has not been unity or love but instead division and often that division is angry and acrimonious .
So how then can we ever expect the church to experience unity. A new statement of faith is not the answer. The merger of denominations is not the answer either.
The seeds of the answer are something which my wife experienced many years ago in Houston, Texas.` My wife and I began to attend a number of services and seminars at various churches regarding the move of the Holy Spirit. Over time we noticed that we would see the same people over and over again. The people came from various denominations. Some were from independent churches and some were from a local Chinese language church. Others came from the Catholic and Episcopal churches. There were a scattering of Methodists, Baptists and people from the Assemblies of God. Gradually we got to know each other. God had impressed all of our hearts to draw near to him and to learn more about the working and move of the Holy Spirit. Despite our divergent denominational backgrounds we found that we had a unity in Christ which was deeper than our denominational commitments. Further, we could both worship and fellowship with ease and all exterior barriers were removed. We were one in the Spirit. Where the Holy Spirit moves, the walls of division fall down. Those walls may be denominational walls, racial walls or economic and cultural walls. As we conform to Christ, inevitably we grow closer together.
Another factor in breaking down the walls of division, is persecution. Soldiers in a fox hole fighting for their very lives against a common enemy do not waste their time on debating about trivia or even discussing important matters. Instead they are in a life or death situation and they do not need to know much more than they have a common commander and a common enemy. Our common commander is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our common enemy is Satan and his demonic forces. These days we, our families and our homes are in a life and death struggle against Satan . His weapons are guilt, doubt, anger, lusts, drugs and a host of other terrible weapons. Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy and he takes no prisoners. There are no devices that he will not use. He will use drugs, poverty, ignorance , hatred, crime, or war to harm and enslave you and your family. One of his greatest weapons is deception to convince you are not in a war or that if you comprise with him you will remain safe. He is the master of propaganda and one of his great abilities is the use of lies and deceit. He used “fake news” so to speak long before that term was ever coined. He sows seeds of doubt, confusion and distrust. He rejoices in the killing of the young and in setting family member against family member.
Once you recognize that you are in a war, and you identify the enemy coming to hurt and attack you, your family, your church and your friends, you join with others in resisting the attack. As you resist the attack of the enemy, the walls of separation come down. You appreciate those who are joined in fighting our common enemy and the walls of separation naturally fall.
We are in a struggle today. However, we are not the first generation which has fought the onslaught of the enemy. These enemies include totalitarian regimes, false religions and racial and ethnic attempts at “cleansing.” Denominations under totalitarian regimes often find that they cooperate and come together whereas in peace they maintain their walls of separateness. I believe the greater the pressure from without, the more likely we will achieve unity within.
Like most brothers close in age, my brother and I spent our fair share of time fighting. Yet when my parents came down on both us, we could always patch up our unity because we then had a common enemy. We even went on a hunger strike as kids so that we could have motorcycle jackets. We achieved unity because we had a common goal and common people (mom and dad) trying to prevent us from achieving that goal. Although we often did not get our way, in this instance our unity and commitment impressed even our parents and one day my brother and I sported new motorcycle jackets which we loved to wear to church to my parents’ chagrin. Unity can be strong and is enhanced as we seek to achieve a goal which is important to us.
Persecution can drive us to reconciliation. In third century Rome, differences in belief resulted in there being two popes. One was Pope Pontian who was bishop of Rome from 230-235 A.D. The other Pope, who was considered to be an “Anti-Pope” was Hippolytus. Hippolytus was not only a great spiritual leader but a historian and author. During the reign of Roman Emperor Maximus Trax persecution of Christians resumed. Both Pontian and Hippolytus were separately tried and sentenced to slavery for life in the mines of Sardinia. Sardinia had become a Roman Province in 226 A.D. and was where the Romans mined lead and silver. A life sentence to the mines of Sardinia was considered a death sentence because prisoners were worked to death. It is reported and believed that Hippolytus and Pontian made their peace and came into unity with one another at the mines before their death. Pontian was beaten to death by sticks at the mines in 235 and the particulars of the death of Hippolytus are not reported. After the persecution ceased, their bodies were located and given Christian burials and they both are commemorated by the Eastern Orthodox Church on the same day, August 13.
Christians surrounded by hardship and by those with pagan life styles bind together and find unity. Missionaries on foreign mission fields find areas of commonality and often find unity due to being surrounded by pagans.
As a young man and a committed Christian, I worked offshore on the oil rigs with a hard- drinking rough group of men. Over time, I found another person working for the same company who was a committed Christian. I was the youngest man working for the company. The other man was the one who had worked for the company the longest with over 20 years of service. Because of Christ, the youngest employee of the company and oldest employee of the company became fast friends despite their ages and backgrounds and had a unity that others could not reach because we were one in Christ.
How do we get into unity with one another? The short answer is that we don’t. Instead of trying to reach agreement upon essentials, we focus our efforts both as individual Christians and as local churches into coming into conformity with Jesus Christ. Our focus is Jesus not statements of faith or denominational mergers. As we each come into conformity with Christ we move closer to conformity with one another. Christ is our standard. He is our tuning fork. He is the true note to which each of us must conform. As we conform to the image of Christ, each of us will begin to look to be more in conformity. Like stones in a building, we will begin to fit together. Yet, despite this conformity to Christ, there is a wonderful diversity. We are not all the same. We become an orchestra with many different instruments playing a hymn of praise to God. He has called to himself a new creation made up of many tribes, many peoples, many nations and many races. Wondrously different, but still we reach a unity in Christ. If we get in tune with Christ, we will get in tune one with another.
As believers we are getting ready to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the bridegroom and we, the church of Christ, are the bride. This is described in Revelation 19:7-8 which says, “For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean was given her to wear” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)”
Part of our getting ready is to cleanse ourselves from the things of the world. We are to give up worldly attitudes and mind sets and be conformed to the image of Christ. As we focus upon Christ and become like Christ we come into a natural state of unity through our conformity and our shedding of our ways, our thoughts and our prejudices. We begin to see as He sees and do as He does. We become like Christ. As we become like Christ the world will notice our love one for another and will recognize the reality of Christ.
“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”—John 13:35
