The Biblical Foundation for Unity Among Christians

The biblical foundation for unity among Christians is that we have One God and One Christian experience. Much of our conflicts in this world are based on differences such as racial, national, political, religious and personal differences.  When upper caste Hindus oppress and subjugate lower caste Hindus in India, they do it based on the caste differences. When some Americans look upon people from Iran with hatred, they do so because of political differences. When David Letterman mocks and puts down Jay Leno, he does so because of personal differences. Differences in our world cause conflict; differences cause hatred and disunity. The same is true of the Church. The Church is supposed to be not of the world. Yet the Church has allowed enough of the world to enter into its culture that now a church gets divided over differences that cause division in the world. We let the color of our skin, nationality, economic status and personal differences divide us. Pastor Tony Evans while attending Carver Bible Institute was refused membership at a church because of the color of his skin. He is black. Now as a pastor in Dallas, TX he serves a multi-racial congregation. He once mentioned in a sermon how he encountered reverse-racism in his Church when a black member of his church came up to him and complained about all the white flocks coming into the church. Pastor Tony Evans told that black man to go find another church where he could be more comfortable. Our denomination, Evangelical Covenant Church came out of a movement in Sweden that protested against the corrupt practices of the Swedish Lutheran Church. One of the corrupt practices that existed in the Swedish Lutheran Church was that they discriminated against those Christians who were poor. They sold church pews to the rich congregation members. As a result on a given Sunday morning while the rich sat the poor huddled together stood at the back of the church. These differences based on race, economic status and personality that divide the rest of the world at times have caused division and disunity in the Church also.
Yet Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4:4-6 that there is a new kind of oneness that forms the basis of our unity other than the color of our skin or our nationality or our economic status, and this oneness is that we all have One God and have shared in One Christian experience. Therefore, Paul writes in Eph 4:4-6, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Have you noticed how many times Paul uses the word "one." What Paul is underscoring here is that the foundation for our Christian unity is what we share in common, that is One triune God and one Christian experience. Talking about One God Paul gives it in reverse order. He says Christians have One Spirit referring to the Holy Spirit, One Lord, a popular way referring to Jesus, the Son in the NT, and One God, the Father. And Paul says furthermore that we as Christians share in the same Christian experience. And he gives four description of that experience. He says that there is One body. Here Paul is talking about the body of Christ, the Church of which we are a part. It is a fact that one cannot be a Christian without being a part of the Church. Paul in 1Cor.12:13 talks about being baptized into one body, the Church. What that means is that when we get baptized as a Christian we not only come to belong to Jesus but also to his Church. What that means is that being a part of the body of Christ, the Church is a common experience we as Christians share. We might have developed into various denominations, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, but from Paul’s perspective we are one body.  Next Paul says that we were called to One Hope of our calling; that is the hope that comes with the great salvation to which we have been called, the hope of the coming kingdom of God, the hope of resurrection and the eternal life with God. Now we may differ over when the end might come or how the end might come, but we do not differ in our hope. All Christians, according to Paul, have one hope to look forward to.  He then says that we have One faith, meaning the body of core beliefs known as the gospel such as that Jesus died for our sins. Lastly, Paul says we have One baptism, the water baptism as a symbol of the same faith commitment that all Christians share in common. What Paul is saying here is that these things that we share in common, One God and One Christian experience, are what form the foundation for our Christian unity.
Isn’t it interesting that what is of any significance in our lives, things that have eternal significance, Paul says, are things that we share in common as Christians, one God, one body, one hope, one faith and one baptism. Therefore, why do we let things such as race, economic status, political affiliations, personal preferences, things that don’t and never will get us into God's kingdom divide us?

 

True Love

Saw the movie "Frozen" with my wife and kids today. It is interesting that the movie is about true love expressed through a self-sacrificial gesture that brings life to Anna and to her town. As prince Hans lifts his sword to kill Elsa sister Anna runs over and puts herself between the sword and Elsa. She takes the blow for Elsa. As a result she does not die. But her true love brings life back to her frozen heart that would have ultimately killed her. As a result also life in terms of Summer returns also to the kingdom of Arendelle that lay in the frozen death grip of winter.   This is the story also of Easter. True sacrificial love bringing life and hope of restoration to a dying world. Jesus death on the cross for the sins of the world and his resurrection usher in a new life. Frozen hearts are now softened towards God,  and death now also melts away under the heat of an everlasting life.  It is so interesting that even though a secular world celebrates this love through this movie it mocks Christianity for its belief in such a love expressed through the cross of Christ! It is foolishness they say. Yet they crave it so much that they dream of it through a 150 million dollar movie.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25: For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written,
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
   and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’
²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.