Maintaining Unity

I’ve had the privilege of being in different churches over the years for several different reasons. I’ve been to big churches, small churches, house churches, new churches, old churches, Baptist, Methodist, Pentacostal, Non denominational, the list could go on.

The last message I preached recently was from Ephesians 4. To sum up the entire passage Paul tells the Ephesians to walk in a manner worthy of their calling, that there is One Lord, One Faith, and One Spirit. He exhorts them to strive for the unity of the Spirit. Paul is telling them to walk in manner that shows that they are one body even though they are a diverse group of people ethnically. The same can be said about us today and our spiritual backgrounds as believers.

Under the great umbrella of Christian faith there are many different traditions. All will admit to hold to the greater tenants of the faith, that there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, who atoned for sin and that he redeems us by grace through faith. What makes us differ are subjects such as spiritual gifts, manifestations of the spirit, end times theology, proper worship attire, church leadership, all this is stuff that won’t keep us out of heaven, but does affect how the church functions, but should never affect how it worships.

What the problem seems to be sometimes is we get more concerned for what makes us different than what makes us the same. We at times are more concerned if this believer holds to the same view of the gifts of the spirit that we do or what version of the bible they read. Once we find that these other believers hold to different traditions than we do, we make sure we both understand that there is a boundary between us. We may not always say it or verbalize it but we sure say it in our heart.

Very seldom do I see people, even myself, stopping and being in awe of the one thing we have in common, the blood of Christ. Isn’t it beautiful to see that God saves such a diverse group of people to be the Body of Christ? Even after Christ saves us, we all come to hold our own opinions and views yes, but by the power of the Holy Spirit we are being made into one body, knit together in love. What if we all threw ourselves head first into that, when Baptist and Pentecostals could come together in one place and raise their hands to heaven and be in awe of the one thing that truly brings them together, Jesus Christ.

What if he was really the only thing that mattered? See striving to keep the unity of the spirit is not that we all believe the same thing, but that we all believe what is important, that Christ died for sin, saves men and women, and calls them to turn from sin by His Spirit. Striving to keep the unity of the spirit is that when I see there is some difference between us that the bible does not say for us to break fellowship over, I should do everything in my power to see that it does not divide us.

My prayer is that Jesus would be greatest theological truth we strive for. The deep doctrinal truths we find in the scriptures were not meant to divide us or to hurt and cut down our brothers and sisters but was meant to lead us into deeper worship. Because friends it is only through Christ that we can understand truth, He is the beginning of all truth. We only understand forgiveness because of His forgiveness for us. We only understand love because of His love for us. The list can go on but if we only use truth to cut down then have we really learned Christ.