What Unity Doesn't Mean

It's no secret that unity is one of the big things (if not the biggest thing) Christ wants from the Church. John 13:34-35; 17:20-23; and 1John 4:12 all say that it is through the unity of the Church that we know God, and that others know the truth about Christ. One of the last and most famous of the prayers of Christ is for love and unity among Christians, and, as stated in a previous post, love for other believers is one of the highest commandments of Christianity.

I don't claim to be an expert on achieving or maintaining unity, or even knowing exactly what it's supposed to look like, but I do know some things that it isn't.

First, the unity of the Church is bigger than unity within a single church or even a church group or denomination. This is a mistake cultists make. Many of them will turn to the divisions between mainline Christian churches and use these to dismiss all churches besides their own, since, supposedly everyone else is divided, but they are still united. Of course, this usually backfires when one finds out that these cults have splinter groups of their own.  It's also a mistake that Christians make.  Being united and loving one another is easy when we can narrow the boundaries of that love and union down to a relatively small number of individuals (a church group, a Bible study, etc) and even easier when we can control who can and can't be a member of that group.  But the Bible doesn't make things easy: it says that the unity of the Church is something that extends to all Christians everywhere, regardless of their membership in any group or denomination. We cannot say that Christ is worshiped only by Methodists, Baptists, or Presbyterians, He is worshiped by members of every kingdom, tribe, a tongue. As we are all united in the worship of the same God, we should strive to be united with each other, no matter what churches we go to.

Second, and related, being united in the Church doesn't mean that we all need to be members of the same organization, or even members of a organization. This is something that a lot of churches disagree with. Churches often discourage Christians from going along without being members of a church. The accusation is that such Christians cannot be properly united to other believers, since they have no formal associations. While it is true that Christians who don't associate with others at all aren't united (and that Christians who don't go to church can risk falling into this category), we should distinguish between believers who don't associate with other believers and believers who aren't members of a church institution. The latter category includes a great many believers, possibly the majority of all Christians throughout history. Membership in churches was not formally organized until hundreds of years after Christ, and in many countries today is greatly restricted or non-existent. Nevertheless, these believers still gather together and are united with other believers. Even in countries where membership in the institutional church is unrestricted, there is no Biblical mandate that Christians take advantage of it. The Bible commands unity and love among individual Christians, not commitment to organizations made by Christians.

Third, it doesn't mean a going with the consensus of a superficial "Christian" culture.  True unity must be based on truth, and there is much in even the most well-meaning "Christian" cultures that has nothing to do with truth.

Finally, unity does not mean pleasing and serving the popular or powerful Christians in a community. Again, unity must be based on truth, and not only do the popular and powerful have no monopoly on these, but also the truth is that Jesus came to serve and love the outcasts and sinners, and calls us to do the same.

Forgiven So That I Can Forgive

The more I learn of Christ, the more I read in the Bible, the more I am convinced of the central importance of brotherly love between believers. Yesterday, I was reminded by one of my roommates, a man from Brazil. When he found out that I was a Christian, a Protestant, and even a member of the same denomination as him, he clasped my hand and said excitedly, "You are my Brother!" We are probably more than a decade apart in age, from separate countries on separate continents, severed by a formidable language barrier, but my roommate is right: in Christ, we are brothers.

Today, I was reminded of it when Paul, in this morning's passage, made a point of telling the Colossians that the things he was suffering, he was suffering so that they could mature in Christ and "reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ."  As a part of that process, he thought it necessary that they be "knit together in love" (Colossians 2:2).

...And then right after the message, I walked out and passed by a sister in Christ and the cluster of my old friends who surround her, trying as gracefully as possible to pretend they didn't exist because this sister has a problem with me that she doesn't want to even try to work out, preferring that we simply not be on speaking terms ever again, period.

In retrospect, I have to wonder: were either of us paying attention during the message? My roommate from Brazil, bless his heart, he can barely speak English, but he gets it: if you are a Christian, even if I have never met you before and our homes are a thousand miles apart, you are my Brother and I love you! But me and this young lady, we've known each other for years, live in the same city, attend the same church, and worship the same God in the same way...but we let some imagined offence cut off all love and kinship between us. We let this root of bitterness spread to encroach on other relationships. We call it holy, good and peaceful.

What are we thinking?

Christ was very clear about what we as Christians were to do if we ever had a serious disagreement with each other: forgive.  It's been laid out in the song we've sung two weeks in a row: as Christians, we are forgiven so that we can forgive each other.

Christ laid it out even more plainly in Matthew 18:21-35. When Peter, thinking himself very patient and forgiving asked if 7 was the upper limit for how many times he should forgive his brother for the same offence, Christ didn't give him a number to use. Instead,He put things is perspective by telling the story of a man who, having just been forgiven a debt of roughly $6 billion in today's currency, goes out and strangles a guy who owes him the approximate cost of a used car ($12,000). All of us as Christians stand forgiven before Christ of an incalculable weight of sin. How hypocritical of us to then turn around and beat each other up over a pale pittance of petty grudges! When we were dedicated life-long enemies of Christ, He died for us...but we can't even acknowledge each other's existence because of our petty grudge-match? When we heaped up mountains of sin to separate ourselves from God, Christ came down from heaven and gave his blood to remove the offenses and restore the fellowship between us...but we think it's okay cut all ties between each other over a handful of perceived slights?

Was this what Christ saved us for? I cannot imagine it is.