"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, that you may be perfectly united in mind and in thought." 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NIV)
The New International Version of the bible uses the word "appeal"; the King James Version uses the word "beseech". In the Greek, the word is "parakaleo", meaning an urgent and heart-felt exhortation. Paul used the most urgent terms to encourage unity in the early church in Corinth. The word "plead" is used elsewhere. (See Philippians 4:2).
The issue of unity among believers is something that weighed heavily in the minds of Jesus and the early church. The longest prayer spoken by Jesus, recorded in the gospel of John, was a prayer for unity among the believers of the world. The themes of unity and division can be seen in the writing of Paul, Peter, James, and Luke. So why is there so much division within the local church? And why is the body of believers, the Church in general, so divided? Paul practically pleads with the local church for the members to agree with one another (elsewhere, in Philippians, he does plea.) How do we minimise divisions within the church?
This is, of course, a huge topic, and I am by no means a biblical scholar. The dogmatic differences between denominations of Christianity is not my forte. However, I do believe that large gaps in unity all started from differences between people and they way they rub shoulders with one another; as such, below are merely some of my reflections on rubbing shoulders and fitting into a church family.
1. We are one, but we are many
In Romans 14, Paul addresses the issue of diversity in opinion among the early church. Some held on to their perhaps pre-Christian beliefs (either from Judaism or from paganism) that some foods are unclean, or that some days are more sacred than another. How to resolve these differences? Consider these verses: "Accept those whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does." (Ro 14:1-3) "Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification" (Ro 14:19) And let us not ignore: "So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God." (Ro 14:22) Finally: "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." (Ro 15:7)
In other words, the Romans had great disputes over matters which to them at the time must have seemed of astronomical importance. It's interesting in a way: those early Christians would have experienced oppression and persecution and the threat of being thrown by lions every day - and yet some Christians still thought the important issue of the day was whether it is ok to eat meat. Paul tells us that whatever our personal views are on these matters, to accept and not judge one another, and to be accountable to God.
Aside from diversity in opinion, and a whole host of other problems, the early church in Corinth also had issues with diversity in gifts. 1 Corinthians 12 addresses the issue of differences in spiritual gifts, and the necessity of these gifts to work together as members of the one body.
Of course, some differences in doctrine can not be accepted - these concern the doctrines central to our faith as Christians. But these central doctrines are few (concerning God, the Trinity, Christ, human sin, and our need for salvation). Most of the dogmas that divide Christians are not these fundamental theological doctrines, but the "side" issues - like food, holy days, and whether we can baptise babies. Jesus never said anything about whether we can baptise babies, neither did any of the biblical writers. Perhaps there is a reason for that. At the risk of sounding flippant - perhaps it doesn't matter as much to the Saviour as it does to the generations of scholars debating the topic. And yet, many great schisms arose from issues such as these.
On a more practical note, perhaps we should all stop trying to change each other, thinking we know best. (Yes, I know this isn't in the bible, but I needed to say it.) I have been married for 3 months, and the first lesson I learnt about marriage was to give up the temptation try to change my husband. (I love him, but I see his imperfections better than anyone. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about, right?) I figured that changing him would kill the diversity and spontaneity in our relationship, and I'll probably die from exhaustion and peptic ulcer before he budges an inch.
2. Focus on the common ground
Joel A'bell, a pastor at Hillsong Church, once said: "If you want to increase in love for another - focus on what you have in common. Don't spend all day thinking about how different you are to this person - instead focus on the common things - and you will find that there are many." I personally would extend this "common ground" to the general human condition: that everyone you talk to, no matter how different you are, is still a child of God, but is never the less a sinner, and has been sinned against. That is pretty much the basic description of human: God-like, sinner, sinned against. There is something glorious and yet weather-beaten in everyone. Last week the baby of one of the pastors at my church died, and I seen and heard of many more such tragedies occurring in the lives of even the most pious Christians... each time to my great sadness and distress. No one is immune from the toils of life, and when we realise that the chasm between us is not so great, love becomes easier.
3. Love is indispensable
1 Corinthians 13 has got to be one of the most quoted passages of the bible, written beautifully and often quoted at weddings (not ours, I had to be non-conformist). What is often forgotten, though, is that it is immediately after chapter 12, which talks about diversity and unity, about all members working together as one body. After he talks about the different gifts working together, in case the reader is left wondering how, he states: "And now I will show you the most excellent way", and goes on to talk about love. In other words, love is the answer to working together with diversity, love supersedes all your gifts and knowledge and even your good deeds. I need not quote all the scriptures that exhort us to love one another.
What perhaps does need to be mentioned, though, is where this love comes from. Jesus tells us to love our enemies, but generally when we look at those who hurt us, "love" is not the four-letter word that comes to mind. We sometimes not generous and charitable enough to love even the annoyingly slow waiter or check-out girl, let alone our enemy.
The word for "love" in 1 Corinthians 13 is the Greek word "agape". If you are a lover of C S Lewis, or if you know something of Greek, or if you are just generally nerdy (and I am all of the above), you will know that in the New Testament there are various words which are all translated to English as "love", but mean different things (like brotherly love, sexual love, etc). Agape refers to the love that Christ showed for us - it is a God-love. 1 John 4:19 says: "We love, because God first loved us". In other words, it is so hard for us to love others if we hadn't first received God's love. By continually receiving God, we can continually love others.
4. Humility
Paul, in Philippians 2:2-3 again talks about unity among the believers, and this time he points to humility as a vessel to help us be like-minded. "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interest but each of you to the interests of others".
You can't get along with others, accept differences, and be like-minded, if you consider yourself better than others. Even IF you are RIGHT, are you are indeed smarter, better educated, or can remember more bible verses.
The bible tells us: be quick to listen, slow to speak. (James 1:19). Joyce Meyer once said: "I know that I can learn something from every person I meet. So when I am speaking to someone, I ask myself - what am I learning? What is God trying to teach me from this interaction?" I am of the personal opinion that if everybody spoke less and listened more carefully, many people would find that they are not as smart as they thought they were.
When I was talking about this with my husband last night, he observed: "Humility is not something you can preach at someone about, because it's not something you do, it is a state of mind. If you preach at someone to be humble, they will just go about acting humble, and then feel very proud of how humble they are. For someone to have an attitude of humility, they need to be taught by God - they need to take a fall, crash to the ground, and realise they are not as smart or wise as they thought they were. Then, they will see God and other fallen humans the humble way."
He is right, of course. Nothing teaches humility like the University of Hard Knocks. But sometimes I wish there was an easier way, other than be knocked about and off your feet.
5. Submission is not a dirty word
Yes, you heard right, all you Generation Ys. Submission. It is not a dirty word, and if you don't know what it means, look it up in the dictionary.
Hebrews 13:17: "Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because
they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so
that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no
benefit to you."
Ephesians 4:11-13: So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son
of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness
of Christ.
The verses are so clear, there's almost no argument. Your leaders are Christ-appointed. Trust them, submit to them. Simple. Don't like it? Too bad: they were anointed for this work, you were not. Deal with it. Submission is not a cop-out ("I submit, therefore I don't have to do or say anything). Submission is not switching your brain off, nor is it being lazy. Submission is humbly having respect and trust for those whom God has placed in authority. Submission is allowing those in authority to help equip you to serve God the best way you can, in the best way they can. Submission is allowing yourself to be corrected, to be rebuked, and to learn. This is a hard teaching, especially to today's stiff-necked, tech-savvy, post-modern and somewhat rebellious generation. Can you accept it?
It gets a little less clear-cut than that, if you disagree with your leaders, or if you frankly just don't like them and the way they do things. It happens - after all, we are all human. You may have a dogmatic disagreement with the teaching of your pastor (see point no. 1), or you might not have much in common (see point no. 2), or, in the worst case, they have done or said something to upset or hurt you. All these are possible, because they are human, and because you are human. Of course, I can't give a clear-cut solution for all of these problems that may arise (as some of them are far too complex to be solved by a simple cliche answer), except to say that love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are virtues all exhorted in the bible, against these there is no law. (Galatians 5:22)
Conclusion: why is unity important?
If you are an obedient Christian, then just the fact that Jesus preached for and prayed for unity should be enough for you to strive for it. Is there any doubt that we better fulfil the Great Commission (see Matthew 28:19) when we are unified in a group? Is there any doubt that we better influence our surroundings, feed more orphans and widows, build more hospitals and such, when we are "of one heart and mind"? A look at church history shows us what disunity does to us. We have one God, one Saviour, one Holy Spirit. And yet we have enough denominations than most people can count, a joke that is thousands of years old. In the local level, unity in the church is important so that we can better learn from each other and so that we can better serve our surrounds. On the world-wide scale, we're all meeting up in heaven anyway, so we might as well get on with each other now.
