God's Heart for Unity - Part One

 

Unity – Part of God’s Heart for Us

If you ask most Christians what is at the center of God‘s heart, they will say correctly, it is the salvation of souls. I mean, why else did He become flesh and die on that cross if it was not to save our souls? Repeatedly, God tells us throughout the Bible what He tells us in 2 Peter 3:9 – that He is "not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.”

Surely, because it is God’s heart that souls be won to Him, true Christians do what they can do to win souls to Christ. They pray for their families and friends and acquaintances – even for people they have never met. And to that end, they also support missionary programs and other outreaches of their church designed for winning souls to Christ. As Solomon remarked, “He who is wise wins souls.” (Proverbs 11:30)

But there is yet another part of God‘s heart that I sometimes wonder if Christians consider. It is that part of His heart which cries for unity in the Body of Christ, which St. Paul tells us is the entire church – whatever their label: Catholic, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Pentecostal and so forth.

It is the unity for which the Lord Jesus prayed in His High Priestly prayer. You will find it in John 17:22-23, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

It is the unity St Paul urged in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus: “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” (4:1-6)

In a time when pagans readily killed one another and treated each other with contempt, Tertullian, one of the early Church fathers wrote of how the pagans viewed Christians: See [they say] how they love one another’ . . . and how they are ready to die for each other’.

But regarding unity in the entire Christian church today, I think most everyone who looks around with an honest heart would say we see little unity in the Body of Christ. And I believe surely God‘s heart is broken because of it.

I am not so naïve to think what I share today and over the next few weeks will change the ongoing tragedy of our disunity that faces the Church today.  But what I DO hope will happen is this: That you will take to your own heart what is God’s heart for unity in the essential doctrines of Christian faith. And I hope you will not insist other Christians dot their ‘I’s and cross their ‘T’s according to how you and your church think things should be done.

The destructive demon of disunity is not new to recent centuries. The apostles dealt with division early in church history. We see that from the record of Acts 15 which describes for us the theological issues facing the Jerusalem Council. Later, St. Paul addressed the early divisions tearing apart the Corinthian church. You can find that recorded in 1 Corinthians. Then there was the heresy despoiling the Galatian church shortly after the resurrection of Jesus.

And divisions continue to this very moment. Indeed, it has been my experience over the nearly 50 years I have fellowshipped in a variety of Protestant and Catholic fellowships that few Christians actively see unity among the brethren. Some actively work against it.

Those who disdain the idea of seeking unity with Christians of other labels are like high school students who declare that their school football team is better than the ones across town – and they’re ready to go to fisticuffs to make their point.

But what does Scripture say about such attitudes toward each other in the Body of Christ? St Paul had to address this same issue in his letter to the divisions in the church at Corinth:

“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? (1 Corinthians 1:10-13)

That was a great question back then. And it’s a great question here and now. Is Christ divided? To look at the hundreds of denominations, and the hundreds more groups that have splintered off from those denominations – an honest person will have to agree that unity in the Body of Christ is far from a reality.

 

Let me illustrate from my own experience Paul’s point about division in the Christian family:

 

In 1976 I’d been a Christian for four years – but I’d spent those years overseas in Japan where I was stationed with the Navy. So, my only exposure to Christians of different theological persuasions was at the interdenominational base chapel where we ALL worshipped together. My other exposure to Christianity was at the interdenominational mission center a few blocks from the naval base where we ALL worshipped together. It was not until my discharge from the navy that I discovered just how divided Christ’s body really is.

 

After leaving the navy, Nancy and I arrived in Springfield, Missouri where I was to attended Central Bible College – known in town as CBC. It was an Assemblies of God Bible college, Pentecostal in theology. In the same town was another Bible college, this one called Baptist Bible College, known as BBC.

 

A few days after arriving in town, I needed an antibiotic prescription filled at a local pharmacy. I gave the druggist my name, address, and the school I attended – CBC – as my insurance provider. When I returned later that day to pick up my prescription. The pharmacist confirmed insurance coverage by BBC.

 

When I corrected him and told him I attended CBC, he blushed, and stuttered his apology. “I’m so sorry. I thought you’d told me you are a student at BBC.”

 

I shrugged my shoulders and told him it wasn’t a problem. I paid for my prescription and left the store wondering why he was so apoplectic and apologetic over a simple mistake. It was not until a few weeks later that I learned how many students in each school had nothing good to say about those in the other school.

 

The perplexing thing about that division in Springfield is this: Both groups believed the Bible is the fully inerrant and infallible word of God. Both groups believed Jesus has always existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit as one God in three persons, each with His own nature. Both groups believed Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, He suffered and died a torturous and substitutionary death on the cross to pay for our sins. They both believed He rose again on the third day from death, and that He will return for His Church, which is His mystical Body.

 

BOTH groups believed the essential truths leading to eternal life. Where Pentecostals and Baptists disagreed, they disagreed about things NOT essential to believe for salvation, such as are the gifts of the Holy Spirit operative today? Or can a Christian lose his or her salvation? But believing or rejecting either of those doctrines has no effect whatever on the eternal destiny of the person. None.

 

The Lord Jesus warned us in Matthew 12: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (Matthew 12:25)

 

Christian, listen! Satan also knows that unerring Bible truth. And it doesn’t require a PhD in history to recognize how deftly he has used that principle of division since the earliest days of the church.

 

Years ago, I watched a 1967 film version of the WWII Battle for Tobruk. It starred Rock Hudson and George Peppard. The gist of the story is that German Field Marshall Rommel’s Panzer tanks were a short distance from the strategic Suez Canal. The Allies wanted to destroy the fuel bunkers at Tobruk in order to cripple Rommel’s tanks. British and other allied commandos set out through the Libyan desert to destroy the fuel bunkers.

 

Several nights into their mission they spotted a dust plume on the horizon. It belonged to an Italian convoy wending its way toward them. Fortunately for the Allies, a large sand-dune separated them from the enemy column.

 

Without safe alternatives, they settled down to wait for the Italians to pass. However, when the convoy reached the other side of the dune, they stopped their tanks and began setting camp for the night. The commandos could do nothing but wait for daybreak when the Italians would continue on their way.

 

The night wore on without incident until commando scouts spotted another string of armored vehicles moving toward them from the opposite direction. This one belonged to Germans.

 

Caught in the middle, it was only a matter of time before one group or the other discovered them. In desperation, the Allied band executed a daring strategy and fired mortars toward the Germans. At the same time, they fired across the sand dune at the Italians, hoping each army would think the other fired on them.

 

The strategy worked. Within moments the Germans and the Italians, their identities hidden by the dark, rained destruction on each other. In the conflagration, the commandos escaped into the night. A few days later, at least, according to the movie, the fuel farm at Tobruk exploded in flames. The small band of warriors successfully completed their mission.

 

Scripture repeatedly makes the point: humanity is engaged in a deadly spiritual war waged by an enemy whose mission is to destroy us all. The only force able to thwart Satan from completing his objective is Jesus Christ’s church – which, again I repeat, St. Paul tells us, is His Body (Ephesians 1:22-23; 1 Corinthians 12:27).

 

Knowing the mystical Body of Christ – that being all true Christians regardless of our church label – knowing the Church is an overwhelmingly superior force, Satan has for millennia executed a nearly flawless strategy against it. Rather than a direct frontal attack, he hides in darkness, firing not-so-subtle attitudes of pride, a sense of superiority, and condescension at groups within Christ’s Body.

 

Group A diverts its energies and resources against Group B. Meanwhile, group B reciprocates. Then groups C through Z enter the fray and before long the Body of Christ is embroiled in a seething cauldron, devouring each other – and freeing Satan to move on toward his ultimate objective.

 

When the Germans and Italians surrounded them, no one in the small group of commandos cared about the race, political philosophy, or denominational label of the person in the next foxhole. Only one thing mattered: work as a team to win the objective.

 

The Lord of the Church has called us to win our neighbors, friends, and co-workers for Himself. And our mission requires the undivided efforts of everyone on Christ’s “team.” Oh God! Help us to turn our weapons away from each other and take aim against the true adversary.

 

The Holy Spirit wants to feed our spirits with His truth. But we cut off His voice when we spend our time biting and devouring one another, finding fault with one another, and simply dismissing one another because they don’t believe as we believe.

 

Someone – it might have been St. Augustine – wisely said this about doctrines: “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.”

 

Oh, that we who are in the Body of Christ through our faith in His co-equality and co-existence with the Father and the Holy Spirit, we who believe in Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice for our sins – oh that we would take seriously the Lord’s heart regarding unity.

 

Now please listen: What I have said thus far does NOT mean I believe doctrine is unimportant. Nor does it mean I think we should ever compromise ESSENTIAL doctrine for the sake of unity. No, no, never.

 

The Lord Jesus and the apostles NEVER compromised essential truths for the sake of unity. For example, the Lord Jesus did not compromise the essential doctrines of the word of God when he rebuked the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2 for permitting false teachers into their church. Nor did the apostles during the first Jerusalem Council compromise with heretics. As I mentioned earlier in this message, you will find that vignette in Acts chapter 15. And St Paul wrote an entire epistle lambasting the Christians at Galatia for falling headlong into the apostasy of the Judaizers.

 

But there ARE theological issues the early church faced – non-essential theological issues that will not send anyone to hell if those beliefs and practices are followed or rejected. For example, in the 14th chapter of his letter to the Christians at Rome, St. Paul addressed the non-essential question of eating or refraining from eating meat. In the same chapter he addressed the question of on which day a person should worship God. As far as the apostle was concerned, these were unimportant and non-essential doctrines to salvation.

 

But there ARE essential Biblical truths around which we must find unity, truths essential to salvation. Reject those truths and salvation is out of reach. And that, of course, begs two questions:

 

First, what is essential Christian doctrine, doctrine that must never become negotiable? And second, who has the authority to decide what are those essential truths? Certainly, it is not I. And neither is it you. And neither is it your pastor, or priest, or deacon, or anyone today in any church hierarchy.

 

No, that weighty and critically important decision must be left to the historic teaching of the church dating back to what the apostles themselves wrote, and the interpretations of their teaching as defined by the early Church councils, starting with the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, followed by the seven early councils, beginning in Nicea, Turkey in 325 AD, followed by the Council of Constantinople in 381. Those two critical councils were then followed by five others, until the last so-called early council in 787 AD. The decisions of those early councils became the compass for essential Christian faith necessary for salvation.

 

For example, without the Biblically accurate councils at Nicaea and Constantinople, the essential doctrine taught by the apostles of the co-existence and co-equality of Jesus with the Father and the Holy Spirit would have resulted in the utter collapse of salvation history. Without those councils, Satan would have effectively destroyed what the Triune God did on Calvary.

 

So YES! There are doctrines, beliefs, and practices that remain essential to salvation. What are they? I will answer that question next week as we continue this series of messages focused on the unity of the Body of Christ.