UNITY IN CHRIST

UNITY IN CHRIST

Many of the issues thad divide the church today are small by comparison to the original division between Jews and Gentiles. God loves the whole world. He does not want anyone to perish, but he wants everyone to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). The fact that Jews and Gentiles now are united in Christ encourages us that all believers can also be united in Christ.

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Therefore, Jesus specifically commanded His apostles to preach to all “nations” (Matt. 28:18- 20, Mk. 16:15, Lk. 24:47; Acts 1:8).

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For several years, however, they did not do this. Instead, they preached to none but Jews only (Acts 11:19).

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The first church to accept Gentiles was in Antioch. Perhaps this is why The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” (Acts 11:26).

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The great controversy between Jewish and Gentile Christians resulted in the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15).

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Under the supervision of the Holy Spirit the council concluded that Gentiles did not have to first become Jews to be saved. They did, however, have to “abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:29).

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This decision brought unity. Paul wrote triumphantly about this to the Ephesians insisting that the barrier between Jews and Gentiles had finally been broken down. God had now made of these two one new man so making peace (Mph. 2:11-18).

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Now there is only “One body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all, and in all” (Eph. 4:4-6).

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Obviously barriers that divide Christians are wrong.

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Obviously barriers that divide Christians can be broken down!

THE PRIORITY OF LOVE

All truths are equally true, but not all truths are equally important! 2 + 2 = 4 and Jesus is the Christ. Both statements are equally true, but both are not equally important. The Talmud lists 613 commandments in the Torah and Jewish sects were formed based upon which commandments were the most important. In an effort to divide the followers of Jesus, the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadduccees laid plans to trap Jesus with His words (Matt. 22:15-40). They asked Him questions designed to divide His disciples. When Jesus silenced them an expert in the law tested Him with another question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Matt. 22:36). If you think all of the commandments in the Law are of equal importance you are wrong!

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matt. 22:37,38).

THERE IS NO GREATER COMMANDMENT IN THE BIBLE THAN LOVE!

On the night before Calvary the disciples of Jesus were arguing about which of them was the greatest (Lk. 22:24). These men could “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have

leprosy, (and) drive out demons” (Matt. 10:8), yet they obviously did not love one another. That’s why they were arguing. That’s why Jesus forbade them to leave Jerusalem until they received the “gift” promised by the Father (Acts 1:4). That “gift,” as you know, was the Holy Spirit! The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love! (Gal. 5:22). When the Holy Spirit came He would empower them to love one another!

On the same night that Jesus prayed for the unity of all believers He instructed His disciples: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn. 13:34,35).

The commandment to love was not new. Deut. 6:5 commands to love God, and Lev. 19:18 commands to love your neighbor as your self. The “new command” was “As I have loved you, so you must also love one another”.

The “new” command involved loving one another with the same dimension of love that Jesus has! That measure of love is beyond the reach of human effort and can only be achieved by means of the Holy Spirit.

We do not demonstrate that we belong to Jesus by our “knowledge” but by our “love”!

KNOWLEDGE AND LOVE

The Corinthian church was divided: “One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another ‘I follow Christ’” (1 Cor. 1:12).

These divisions did not result from a lack of knowledge, but from a lack of love. In the first 12 chapters of 1 Corinthians there are 7 references to knowledge. The Corinthians came behind in no spiritual gift (1:7) and this included the “gift of knowledge” (12:8). THEY HAD PLENTY OF KNOWLEDGE YET NOT ENOUCH LOVE. THAT’S WHY PAUL SHOWED THEM THE MOST EXCELLENT WAY!

“And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift or prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, gut have not love, I am nothing. . .” (1 Cor. 13:1,2).

LOVE IS THE MOST EXCELLENT WAY!

The Mensa Society is the largest and oldest society of geniuses in the world. One of their early leaders was the late Victor Serebriakoff. Under his capable leadership the Mensa Society grew from less than 100 to over 100,000 members. In 1960 Victor granted an interview to the New York Times Magazine. In that interview he said: “When I joined Mensa I thought, ‘Now I am joining a bunch of very bright people; therefore everyone will agree with me’ Alas, this turned out not to be so. Then I married a member and began to learn the full extent, breadth and profundity of human disagreement”.

The disagreement Victor had with other members of the Mensa Society apparently paled into insignificance to the differences he had with his wife. This, however, did not keep them from having a happy marriage. Success in marriage is not based in knowledge, but in love. Victor and his wife were married 41 years until she passed away in 1995. Victor followed her in death Jan. 1, 2,000.

It is a mistake to think that intelligent people will always agree with one another!

THE CHURCH IS A FAMILY

You do not get into a family by knowledge, but by birth. You enter into the family of God by being born again. Occasionally babies in the hospital are switched and given to the wrong parents. The correct identity of the child is not determined by knowledge, but by the DNA of the child. The earthly man has the DNA, or “image” of Adam, the heavenly man has the DNA or “image” of God. “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God” (1 Jn. 3:9).

Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of the water and the Spirit” (Jn. 3:5). Paul amplified this truth and wrote: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:26-29).

A family consists of little children who need to be taught and old people who are too old to be taught. Some members of the family are smarter than others and some may even be mentally retarded. A large family has many different kinds of people who do not agree with one another. That’s why we need forbearance and forgiveness (Col. 3:13). If we agreed with one another we wouldn’t need forbearance. We are not in the family of God because we agree with one another, but because we have the same Father!

It is not reasonable to believe that every member of the Body of Christ would understand the Scriptures in exactly the same way. Let us suppose, for example, that one day the Father says to His family: “Avoid every kind of evil” (1 Thess. 5:22). Not every member of the family will understand “evil” in the same way. The young child will think differently about “evil” than his teen age brother. The person in business will think different from a housewife. The athlete will think different from the aged and infirm. IT IS PRESUMPTUOUS FOR ONE FAMILY MEMBER TO CLAIM TO HAVE THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THE FATHER MEANT BY “EVIL”.

EVERY MEMBER OF THE FAMILY HAS A RIGHT TO “FIND” A MEANING IN WHAT THE FATHER SAID, BUT NO MEMBER OF THE FAMILY HAS A RIGHT TO “GIVE” IT MEANING!

If you are in the family of God Jesus is your brother! “Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” (Heb. 2:11).

If Jesus is not ashamed to call you His brother, we shouldn’t be ashamed of you either!

DON’T ARGUE ABOUT OPINIONS

Paul told Timothy: “Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen” (2 Tim. 2:14).

Would you want to be part of a family that was constantly fighting and arguing with one another? This is the way that many unsaved people see the church. Our debates may feed our ego but they can also “ruin those who listen”.

Rome was the capital of the ancient world and was therefore a melting pot of races, creeds, and nationalities. Because of the wide variety of people in the church they were therefore instructed to “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgement on disputable matters” (Rom. 14:1).

Paul continues to explain what he meant by “disputable matters”. These disputable matters involved special foods and special days. Those who were weak in the faith ate only vegetables while others ate everything. One man considered one day more sacred than another and another man considered every day alike.

There was a “scriptural” answer to both problems. With reference to what to eat Paul wrote: “Everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:4,5).

With reference to both diet and holy days Paul wrote: “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath Day” (Col. 2:16).

To the Romans, however, each person was to left alone to behave in ways that did not violate their conscience. Our love for one another keeps us from passing judgement on one another (Rom. 14:13). “If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died.” (Rom. 14:15).

THE OLD COVENANT AND THE NEW COVENANT

“For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. By calling this covenant ‘new’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear” (Heb. 8:7-13).

THE OLD COVENANT

• The “Old Covenant” mentioned in this passage was the Ten Commandments.
• It was made when God took His people by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.

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Moses wrote: “He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then he wrote them on two stone tablets” (Deut. 4:13).

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The Ten Commandments were placed in a receptacle called the “Ark of the Covenant” (Nu. 10:33; 1 Ki. 8:9).

• The old covenant from Mt. Sinai is represented by Hagar and her son Ishmael (Gal. 4:21-25).

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The angel of the Lord told Hagar: “You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers” (Gen. 16:11,12).

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The Old Covenant created hostility because it was written down. Everything written has to be interpreted.

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The Jews accepted the Ten Commandments as “authoritative” but didn’t agree on how they should be interpreted.

THE NEW COVENANT

• The New Covenant was not like the Old Covenant which God made at Sinai.

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God did not write the New Covenant in stone or on paper, but in the minds and hearts of believers. Since others could not see this covenant it eliminated arguments.

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Paul wrote: “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of the human heart” (2 Cor. 3:2,3).

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The Old Covenant was external. People had to be taught the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is internal. Nobody has to teach this covenant because you only receive it if you already know the Lord.

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To “know” in the Biblical sense is to be intimate with another so that a new life is produced. Thus Adam “knew” his wife and she conceived and bare Cain (Gen. 4:1).

• To “know” God is to be born again.

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Just as a human child receives the DNA of it’s father, those who are born again receive the DNA of God. That’s why Christians do not continue in sin because His Seed remains in us (1 Jn. 3:9).

EXPLAINING THE SCRIPTURES

It seems that Christian leaders have consistently found the Scriptures inadequate to clearly express the teachings of their denomination. Thus there are an unlimited assortment of creeds, dogmas, and confessions of faith throughout the 33,000 Christian denominations. The Psalmist said: “The words of the Lord are flawless” (Ps. 12:6). Unfortunately the creeds of men are not!

When the people of God returned from Babylonian captivity Ezra the scribe read the Scriptures to all who could understand from daybreak until noon (Neh. 8:1-3). Further, the Levites made the meaning clear so that the people could understand what was being read (Neh. 8:7,8).

Some things should be obvious in the Bible. For example, “They found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in booths during the feast of the seventh month” (Neh. 8:14). This is clearly stated in Lev. 23:42,43. This is why that feast is called the “Feast of Booths” or the “Feast of Tabernacles”. Yet “From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this” (Neh. 8:17). The time from Joshua the son of Nun to Nehemiah was approximately 1,000 years.

This is reminiscent of Luther’s experience in Rome. He was going up and down Pilate’s staircase when it dawned on him that the “just shall live by faith”. This truth, of course, has always been in the Bible but had mostly been forgotten since the days of Augustine.

So it seems that the “authority of the Scriptures” is not the problem, it is our “explanation” of the Scriptures that is the problem.

NOT MANY SHOULD PRESUME TO BE TEACHERS

This, as you know, is a direct quote from James 3:1 “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly”. Just as the bits in a horse’s mouth make them obey us, and just as a very small rudder can turn a huge ship, so also a teacher can influence a great many people for either right or wrong. Consequently, God holds teachers to a higher standard than he does others.

Love is, of course, the top priority in teaching the Bible. On the night before Calvary Jesus said: “A new command I give you: Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn. 13:34,35). The mere command to love is not a new command. Deut. 6:5 commands us to love God, and Lev. 19:18 commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves.

THE NEW COMMAND WAS TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS JESUS LOVES US!

This new dimension of love is not possible without the Holy Spirit. That’s why Jesus commanded His Apostles to not leave Jerusalem until they had received the “gift” promised to them by God (Acts 1:4). When they received the gift of the Holy Spirit they would have power to show the love of Christ in Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Remember! It is our love for one another that will cause all men to know that we are disciples of Jesus!

Paul was concerned about the Galatians for evil teachers had perverted the Gospel and thrown them into confusion (Gal. 1:6-10). He reminded them: “The entire law is summed up in a single command, ‘Love you neighbor as yourself’ If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other” (Gal. 5:14,15).

33,000 different denominations did not come into existence by themselves. These disciples were drawn away into different groups by teachers. Teachers like Hymenaeus and Alexander made

shipwreck of the faith and Paul handed them over to Satan so that they might learn not to blaspheme (1 Tim. 1:20).

“Teachers” are appointed by God to build up the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11-16). This is done by loving one another!

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF HISTORY

• Before creation God was everything.
• With creation came rebellion.
• Jesus came to put all enemies under His feet (1 Cor. 15:25).
• All things in heaven and earth will be united under One Head, even Christ (Eph. 1:10).
• Jesus will then be subject to the Father (1 Cor. 15:28).
• God will again be “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).

(This study was written by Boyce Mouton. No rights are reserved. You are encouraged to use this material in whole or in part for the glorification of Christ and the advancement of His Kingdom)