Unity and purity

The second commitment reads as follows:

We are committed to maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3), expressed through a generous and gracious orthodoxy.

Let's take a look at what we do and don't mean by that.

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What we don't mean

Blind fellowship and blanket agreement are both dangerous forms of what I am discussing in this article. This happens rather frequently in evangelicalism. The danger is found in slapping "unity" on everything we do, functionally ignoring the Proverbs that tell us to be wise and discerning, as well as Paul's admonition in 2 Corinthians, "What fellowship has light with darkness?"

The truth of the matter is, according to both Jesus and history, that some people who claim the Name are not following him in the way he tells us to. They twist the Scriptures, pervert the truth, and then guilt trip everyone around them for not pursuing unity. My goal here isn't to go on a tirade and list every denomination and local church that we disagree with. I simply want us to think biblically when we pursue fellowship with others.

What we do mean

When we talk about maintaining the "unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," we mean making every effort to maintain fellowship and good relations with everyone who, according to biblical standards, is bound together with us in a state of peace with God by the shed blood of Christ and the testifying work of the Holy Spirit.

There is a unity that comes from having the Spirit that is unexplainable to someone void of his power and presence. You can go to a family reunion and feel like you are with a bunch of complete strangers with similar DNA, and you can also go to a church you have never been to and feel right at home because of the unity of the Spirit. It's an awesome part of getting to be a Christian.

There is a charge laid upon us to keep up that unity with others, and we have failed to keep that charge in many ways as the Church of Christ. From denominational fissuring and tribalism to preference-based fellowship, we have severely dropped the ball. While denominations can be a good thing, allowing Christians to worship in a way that they believe to be fruitful and faithful, they have functionally cut off any attempt to join together for even large-scale things, much less small-scale cordiality. We must begin to repair the damage if we want to be faithful to our Lord's commands (Matt. 28:20).

Part of the way we combat this is by looking to the ancient church for direction. When doing so we find that they kept unity between believers on a large scale by writing something that many Christians today are afraid of: creeds. The word creed simply means believe, so something like the Nicene Creed is a statement on the beliefs of the council formed at Nicaea in AD 325. This is a very early Christian statement that predates the canonization of the bible itself, acting as an easy declaration to be memorized in order to protect the church from impurity and heresy. The thing we have missed in our modern context is that our first goal should be unity, and only after having pursued that should we tearfully disfellowship with others. The early church understood this. We must recover it.

Let's just be honest about what divides us: worship styles, baptism, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, eschatology, female pastors, and politics. These are the main issues that keep Protestants out of unity. Now to be sure, each of the things I have listed above are dangerous to treat as small, but they are also equally as dangerous to be treated as the most important thing. But if we understand what unity means it will help clear up all the confusion. When we speak of unity, we aren't talking about doing everything together. We aren't talking about starting a church together. We aren't even talking about doing joint worship services together. What we mean is that we are loving and treating them in such a way that is reflective of the fact that we believe they are blood-bought sons and daughters of God, even if they are theologically askew in our opinion. That means that we pray for them, we care for them, and we show the love of Jesus to them. After all, isn't that the thing that will change them eventually anyways?

The Kingdom of heaven is full of people who thought they had it all right here on earth. Let that sink in. One day you will make it to eternity and find that you actually had some stuff wrong. Shocker, right? Once we recognize that we are finite and fallible, we can begin to have the kind of humility it takes to look at others with love and not judgement, knowing that our testimony to the world of our discipleship to Jesus isn't our correct beliefs, but the love we have for other Christians.

"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:35

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This series of articles is from our church's 8 Commitments. These are guiding declarations regarding faith and practice that shape how we do church, both now and in the future.