“Basic Christianity, Part 15” by Romans
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We are resuming our Series, “Basic Christianity.” Tonight, we are going to zoom in on something that is a foundational facet of Christianity, but, amazingly, few recognize it, few seek it, few celebrate it. In fact, before this week, I cannot think of a single local or nationally known minister, or Church member that I know personally who I have ever heard speak one word about it. Several days ago, there was mention of it in one of the Daily Devotionals I read along with my daily prayers.
The mention was how many times the phrase “one another” can be found in God's Word. My own research has indicated that “one another” occurs 101 times in 91 verses, just in the New Testament. But I want you all to think... just stop and think. I am asking you not only how many times you have heard “one another” used in a sermon, but used in reference to fellow-believers in Christ who were not of your own Congregation or Denomination.
The foundational facet of Christianity that has been for all intents and purposes discarded is unity. We hear of various Congregations or Denominations heralding the things they believe or the things they understand or the things they practice as verification that they, and in some cases, only they are members of the Church Jesus founded.
Some claim to have the best interpretations of prophecy, or the best definitions of Hebrew and Greek terminology, or the correct pronunciation of the tetragrammaton, that is, the four Hebrew letters YHVH, alternately pronounced by various groups as either Yahweh or Jehovah. Some use the Gift of Tongues as a litmus test as a proof of being saved. Let me just state in no uncertain terms that this claim about tongues is completely without merit, and is alien to the teachings of the Bible.
None of the above heralded characteristics were named when Jesus said in John 13:35: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Have any of you ever heard any Denomination or Congregation ever herald their love of all believers as evidence that they are of the Body of Christ? I will speak, if only for myself, that I have not. Not even once. Ever. This is not rocket science. Let me read Jesus words, again: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” You can't miss it! The words should leap off the page to anyone reading them.
It appears among the final teachings of Jesus to His disciples before His crucifixion. Surely, at some point in reading the Gospels, every minister should have read these clear and unambiguous words at least one time. How many times would they have needed to read it in order for them to get it? But they have not gotten it! Instead, they glory in the exclusivity and alleged superiority of their own Denominations over other believers, other Congregations, and other Denominations.
It is so bitterly ironic that in the Chapter which Bible Scholars call The Love Chapter namely, 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul actually names the very bragging rights that some people name when they herald their accomplishments. He writes, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-2).
Let me point out, here, that they word translated “charity” in these verses comes from the original Greek term “agape`.” Elsewhere, “agape`” is translated “love,” in particular in that critical verse in which Jesus said that all men would know who His disciples were, if we have “love” (Greek, “agape`”) one to another. All bragging about knowledge and prophecies and anything else means nothing where agape` love is not present! Period.
I want you to consider this also: On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus prayer to His Father. We are familiar with Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane in which He asked, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). But only John records the prayer that Jesus spoke before He and His disciples arrived in the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:1).
In John 17 Jesus prays not only for His disciples who were alive at the time, but all subsequent believers down through the corridors of time. He says, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:20-21).
In spite of the unimaginable suffering that Jesus knew would be beginning within the next few hours, 85% of Jesus' prayer in John 17, (21 of 26 verses) is focused on the welfare of His disciples. There are two things, however, that I want to focus on in this portion of His prayer: First, far from Denominational bragging rights, Jesus' priority for His Church is unity: “That they all may be one,” and “that they also may be one in us.” I see no evidence that the Church, today, is unified, and no reason to believe we are one in God.
The Body of Christ, today, is splintered and fractured into hundreds of denominations. We have accepted the unacceptable lie that we are many members in many bodies. The Bible teaches no such thing. We are many members, and even though we rarely if ever speak of it, and even seem not to be able to stand it, we are many members in One Body. We read a true statement in the Psalms that unfortunately cannot be applied to the Church, today: “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Psalms 133:1).
The other thing that Jesus said that I want to focus on: Church unity has a direct impact on our witness to the world. In Jesus' words: “... that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” Am I wrong to conclude that our divisions and contentions among ourselves, has proven to be a major reservation the world has in recognizing Christianity? What do those believers who are members of bickering factions, dismissive of other believers, offer the world that would inspire them to want to have anything to do with Christianity?
There are those who identify themselves as believers in Christ, who do not and will not worship the same God from the same Book under the same roof with others who also identify themselves as believers in Christ! The world has already had more than its share of disagreeing cliques, dissensions, disunity and power grabs led by self-appointed, dividing and conquering leaders. Would a person fleeing from one burning building, seek refuge in another building that is also on fire?
Jesus spoke of His disciples in His Sermon on the Mount as “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). He went on to say in verse 16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” I ask you, is God glorified when His children are withdrawing from each other, denying each other fellowship, disowning each other, revoking each other's Salvation, and judging and condemning each other because of differences in non-essential practices and worship styles? The answer is a resounding “No!”
Paul asked the question, “Is Christ divided?” (1Corinthians 1:13). Our answer should be “No!” But I submit that the mere existence of Denominations, and our routine acceptance of, and defense of their existence answers “Yes!” to that question. This has been a problem in the Church of God from the very early days of the Church, even in the lifetimes of the original Apostles.
At the time when people had just began to withdraw into factions of “I am of Apollos,” and “I am of Cephas,” Paul identified and condemned these “contentions” in 1 Corinthians 1:10-13. You'll forgive me but I see no difference in a believer in Christ 2,000 years ago saying, “I am of Apollos,” and a believer in Christ, today, saying, “I am a... (fill in a Denomination Name, here). In both cases, I cannot help but believe that the question must be asked, “Is Christ divided?”
In contrast, we read Paul's words Ephesians 4:1-6: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in 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 you all.”
The Expositor's Bible tells us of this: “The Exhortation on Church Life. The Fundamentals of Unities. The tone of the apostle’s letters at this time shows that he was sensible of the increased consideration which the afflictions of the last few years had given to him in the eyes of the Church. He is thankful for this influence, and makes good use of it. His first and main appeal to the Asian brethren, as we should expect from the previous tenor of the letter, is an exhortation to unity.
It is an obvious conclusion from the doctrine of the Church that he has taught them. The "oneness of the Spirit" which they must "earnestly endeavour to preserve," is the unity which their possession of the Holy Spirit of itself implies. "Having access in one Spirit to the Father," the antipathetic Jewish and Gentile factors of the Church are reconciled; "in the Spirit" they "are builded together for a habitation of God."
This unity when St. Paul wrote was an actual and visible fact, despite the violent efforts of the Judaisers to destroy it. The "right hands of fellowship" between himself and James, Peter, and John at the conference of Jerusalem were a witness thereto. But it was a union that needed for its maintenance the efforts of right-thinking men and sons of peace everywhere. St. Paul bids all who read his letter help to keep Christ’s peace in the Churches.
The conditions for such pursuing and preserving of peace in the fold of Christ are briefly indicated in Ephesians 4:1-2. There must be- (1) A due sense of the dignity of our Christian calling: "Walk worthily" he says, "of the calling wherewith you were called." This exhortation, of course, includes much besides in its scope;
it is the preface to all the exhortations of the three following chapters, the basis, in fact, of every worthy appeal to Christian men; but it bears in the first instance, and pointedly, upon Church unity. Levity of temper, low and poor conceptions of religion militate against the catholic spirit; they create an atmosphere rife with causes of contention. "Whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal and walk as men?"
(2) Next to low-mindedness amongst the foes of unity comes ambition: "Walk with all lowliness of mind and meekness," he continues. Between the low-minded and the lowly-minded there is a total difference. The man of lowly mind habitually feels his dependence as a creature and his unworthiness as a sinner before God. This spirit nourishes in him a wholesome self-distrust, and watchfulness over his temper and motives.-
The meek man thinks as little of his personal claims, as the humble man of his personal merits. He is willing to give place to others where higher interests will not suffer, content to take the lowest room and to be in men’s eyes of no account. How many seeds of strife and roots of bitterness would be destroyed, if this mind were in us all. Self-importance, the love of office and power, and the craving for applause must be put away, if we are to recover and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
(3) When St. Paul adds "with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love," he is opposing a cause of division quite different from the last, -to wit, impatience and resentfulness. A high Christian ideal and a strict self-judgment will render us more sensitive to wrong-doing in the world around us. Unless tempered with abundant charity, they may lead to harsh and one-sided censure.
Gentle natures, reluctant to condemn, are sometimes slow and difficult in forgiveness. Humbleness and meekness are choice graces of the Spirit. But they are self-regarding virtues at the best, and may be found in a cold nature that has little of the patience which bears with men’s infirmities, of the sympathetic insight that discovers the good often lying close to their faults.
(4) "Above all things"-above kindness, meekness, long-suffering, forgivingness-"put on love, which is the bond of perfectness". (Col_3:14) Love is the last word of St. Paul’s definition of the Christian temper in Ephesians 4:2; it is the sum and essence of all that makes for Christian unity.
In it lies a charm which can overcome both the lighter provocations and the grave offences of human intercourse, -offences that must needs rise in the purest society composed of infirm and sinful men. "Bind thyself to thy brother. Those who are bound together in love, bear all burdens lightly. Bind thyself to him, and him to thee. Both are in thy power; for whomsoever I will, I may easily make my friend" (Chrysostom).
Ephesians 4:1-3 exhibit the temper in which the unity of the Church is to be maintained. Ephesians 4:4-6 set forth the basis upon which it rests. This passage is a brief summary of Christian doctrine. It defines the "foundation of the apostles and prophets" asserted in Ephesians 2:20, -the groundwork of "every building" in God’s holy temple, the foundation upon which Paul’s Gentile readers, along with the Jewish saints, were growing into one holy temple in the Lord.
Seven elements of unity St. Paul enumerates: one body, Spirit, hope; one Lord, faith, and baptism; one God and Father of all. They form a chain stretching from the Church on earth to the throne and being of the universal Father in heaven. Closely considered, we find that the seven unities resolve themselves into three, centring in the names of the Divine Trinity-the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father.
The Spirit and the Lord are each accompanied by two kindred uniting elements; while the one God and Father, placed alone, in Himself forms a threefold bond to His creatures-by His sovereign power, pervasive action, and immanent presence: "Who is over all, and through all, and in all". (comp. Eph_1:23)
I. One body there is, and one Spirit. The former was a patent fact. Believers in Jesus Christ formed a single body, the same in all essentials of religion, sharply distinguished from their Jewish and their Pagan neighbours. Although the distinctions now existing amongst Christians are vastly greater and more numerous, and the boundaries between the Church and the world at many points are much less visible, yet there is a true unity that binds together those "who profess and call themselves Christians" throughout the world.
In missionary fields, confronting the overwhelming forces and horrible evils of Paganism, the servants of Christ intensely realise their unity; they see how trifling in comparison are the things that separate the Churches, and how precious and deep are the things that Christians hold in common. It may need the pressure of some threatening outward force, the sense of a great peril hanging over Christendom to silence our contentions and compel the soldiers of Christ to fall into line and present to the enemy a united front.
Am I a living, integral part of the Church, quickened by its Spirit? or do I belong only to the raiment and the furniture that are about it? "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." He who has the Spirit of Christ, will find a place within His body. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is a communicative, sociable spirit. The child of God seeks out his brethren; like is drawn to like, bone to bone and sinew to its sinew in the building up of the risen body.
By an instinct of its life, the new-born soul forms bonds of attachment for itself to the Christian souls nearest to it, to those amongst whom it is placed in God’s dispensation of grace. The ministry, the community through which it received spiritual life, and that travailed for its birth, claim it by a parental right that may not be disowned, nor at any time renounced without loss and peril.
Where the Spirit of Christ dwells as a vitalising, formative principle, it finds or makes for itself a body. Let no man say: I have the spirit of religion; I can dispense with forms. I need no fellowship with men; I prefer to walk with God.-God will not walk with men who do not care to walk with His people. He "loved the world"; and we must love it, or we displease Him. "This commandment have we from Him, that he who loves God love his brother also."
The oneness of communion amongst the people of Christ is governed by a unity of aim: "Even as also you were called in one hope of your calling." Our fellowship has an object to realise, our calling a prize to win. All Christian organisation is directed to a practical end. The old Pagan world fell to pieces because it was "without hope"; its golden age was in the past.
No society can endure that lives upon its memories, or that contents itself with cherishing its privileges. Nothing holds men together like work and hope. This gives energy, purpose, progress to the fellowship of Christian believers. In this imperfect and unsatisfying world, with the majority of our race still in bondage to evil, it is idle for us to combine for any purpose that does not bear on human improvement and salvation.
The Church of Christ is a society for the abolition of sin and death. That this will be accomplished, that God’s will shall be done on earth as in heaven, is the hope of our calling. To this hope we "were called" by the first summons of the gospel. "Repent," it cried, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" For ourselves, in our personal quality, Christianity holds out a splendid crown of life.
It promises our complete restoration to the image of God, the redemption of the body with the spirit from death, and our entrance upon an eternal fellowship with Christ in heaven. This hope, shared by us in common and affecting all the interests and relationships of daily life, is the ground of our communion. The Christian hope supplies to men, more truly and constantly than Nature in her most exalted forms, "The anchor of their purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of their heart, and soul Of all their moral being."
Happy are the wife and husband... happy the circle of friends who live and work together as "joint-heirs of the grace of life." Well says Calvin here: "If this thought were fixed in our minds, this law laid upon us, that the sons of God may no more quarrel than the kingdom of heaven can be divided, how much more careful we should be in cultivating brotherly good-will! What a dread we should have of dissensions, if we considered, as we ought to do, that those who separate from their brethren, exile themselves from the kingdom of God."
But the hope of our calling is a hope for mankind, -nay, for the entire universe. We labour for the regeneration of humanity. "We look for a new heavens and earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness"; for the actual gathering into one in Christ of all things in all worlds, as they are already gathered in God’s eternal plan. Now if it were merely a personal salvation that we had to seek, Christian communion might appear to be an optional thing, and the Church no more than a society for mutual spiritual benefit.
But seen in this larger light, Church membership is of the essence of our calling. As children of the household of faith, we are heirs to its duties with its possessions. We cannot escape the obligations of our spiritual any more than of our natural birth. One Spirit dwelling in each, one sublime ideal inspiring us and guiding all our efforts, how shall we not be one body in the fellowship of Christ?
This hope of our calling it is our calling to breathe into the dead world. Its virtue alone can dispel the gloom and discord of the age. From the fountain of God’s love in Christ springing up in the heart of the Church, there shall pour forth "One common wave of thought and joy, Lifting mankind again!"
II. The first group of unities leads us to the second. If one Spirit dwells within us, it is one Lord who reigns over us. We have one hope to work for; it is because we have one faith to live by. A common fellowship implies a common creed. Thus Christ Jesus the Lord takes His place fourth in this list of unities, between hope and faith, between the Spirit and the Father. He is the centre of centres, the Lamb in the midst of the throne, the Christ in the midst of the ages. United with Christ, we are at unity with God and with our fellowmen.
But let us mark that it is the one Lord in whom we find our unity. To think of Him as Saviour only is to treat Him as a means to an end. It is to make ourselves the centre, not Christ. This is the secret of much of the isolation and sectarianism of modern Churches. Individualism is the negation of Church life. Men value Christ for what they can get from Him for themselves.
They do not follow Him and yield themselves up to Him, for the sake of what He is. "Come unto me, all ye that are burdened, and I will give you rest": they listen willingly so far. But when He goes on to say "Take my yoke upon you," their ears are deaf. There is a subtle self-seeking and self pleasing even in the way of salvation. From this springs the disloyalty, the want of affection for the Church, the indifference to all.
Christian interests beyond the personal and local, which is worse than strife; for it is death to the body of Christ. The name of the "one Lord" silences party clamours and rebukes the voices that cry, "I am of Apollos, I of Cephas." It recalls loiterers and stragglers to the ranks. It bids each of us, in his own station of life and his own place in the Church, serve the common cause without sloth and without ambition.
Christ’s Lordship over us for life and death is signified by our baptism in His name. We have received, most of us in infancy through our parents’ reverent care, the token of allegiance to the Lord Christ. The baptismal water that He bade all nations receive from His apostles, has been sprinkled upon you. Shall this be in vain? Or do you now, by the faith of your heart in Christ Jesus the Lord, endorse the faith your parents and the Church exercised on your behalf?
If so, your faith saves you. Your obedience is at once accepted by the Lord to whom it is tendered; and the sign of God’s redemption of the race which greeted you at your entrance into life, assumes for you all its significance and worth. It is the seal upon your brow, now stamped upon your heart, of your eternal covenant with Christ. But it is the seal of a corporate life in Him. Christian baptism is no private transaction; it attests no mere secret vow passing between the soul and its Saviour.
"For in one Spirit we were all baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit". (1Co_12:13) Our baptism is the sign of a common faith and hope, and binds us at once to Christ and to His Church. In this rule lies the ultimate ground of union for men, and for all creatures. Our fellowship in the faith of Christ is deep as the nature of God; its blessedness rich as His love; its bonds strong and eternal as His power.
III. The last and greatest of the unities still remains. Add to our fellowship in the one Spirit and confession of the one Lord, our adoption by the one God and Father of all. To the Gentile converts of the Asian cities this was a new and marvellous thought. Our God is no local divinity, to be honoured here but not there, tied to His temple and images and priestly mediators; but the "one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all."
This was the very God whom the logic of Greek thought and the practical instincts of Roman law and empire blindly sought. Through ages He had revealed Himself to the people of Israel, who were now dispersed amongst the nations to bear His light. At last He declared His full name and purpose to the world in Jesus Christ. So the gods many and lords many have had their day. By His manifestation the idols are utterly abolished.
The proclamation of one God and Father signifies the gathering of men into one family of God. The one religion supplies the basis for one life in all the world. God is over all, gathering all worlds and beings under the shadow of His beneficent dominion. He is through all, and in all: an Omnipresence of love, righteousness, and wisdom, actuating the powers of nature and of grace, inhabiting the Church and the heart of men. You need not go far to seek Him; if you believe in Him, you are yourself His temple.”
If there is One God and there is, and if there is One Spirit and there is, and if there is One Body, and there is, and if we are the Temple of God, and we are, then it is time, it is past time, after 21 Centuries of the existence of the Church, the Body of Christ on earth, to live the Unity that Jesus prayed we achieve.
Divide and Conquer is a tactic of Satan to undermine our witness, discredit the Gospel, and shows the world we, ourselves, do not even practice what we preach. Our Message is one of love and forgiveness and reconciliation, but these very attributes are alien to us not only in our dealings with the world, but, to our shame and disgrace, in our unwillingness, and in some cases, refusal to fellowship with, and ever recognize, our own brothers and sisters in Christ!
There is more, here, that we need to discuss on this subject. We need to reject the lie that we are many members in many bodies. We need to stop playing into Satan's hand, withdrawing from, and judging and condemning fellow-believers over non-essential issues.
Next week, in contrast to the landscape of division that is the accepted status quo, I plan to review those occasions where the phrase “one another” directs and admonishes us to adopt a radically different way of thinking and living than we have ever known. I hope as many of you who are here tonight, or hearing this on Youtube, will join me for the next Installment of this Series, “Basic Christianity.”
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Basic Christianity, Part 15.”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on January 6th, 2021.
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