The world will know God’s love—that the Father has sent Jesus Christ—if those who believe on Him are one; Jesus prayed for such (Jn. 17:20-23). Many man-made ecumenical attempts have been made throughout the centuries, but have failed. Usually men, instead of going back to the Bible, try to shorten the list of items upon which we must agree in order to embrace an ever-widening field of divergent opinions. However, the Bible shows that the fundamental doctrines of Christianity cannot be abandoned for some pseudo-unity. In Paul’s inspired exhortation towards unity, he wrote that we are to be: “endeavoring to keep 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” (Eph. 4:3-6).
Instead of concocting our own system of agreeing to disagree, we must maintain the unity the Holy Spirit provides. The oneness of the Lord’s followers is emphasized in the book of Ephesians. God was able to make first-century Jews and Gentiles one in the church, the one body where both are reconciled to God (Eph. 1:22-23; 2:16). Christians can be one as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. Ephesians 2:18 goes on to say of Christ, “For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” By the Spirit we are to walk worthy of our calling (Eph. 4:1). We have been called into the fellowship of God’s Son through the preaching of the gospel (1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Thess. 2:14). This fellowship with the Father and the Son is maintained by abiding in the doctrine of Christ, not changing it to include those who bring other doctrines (2 Jn. 9-11).
The mindset that is key to unity is seen when Christians walk “with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love” (Eph. 4:2). Notice how the same words appear in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” The Spirit has produced results (fruit) in our lives that create the possibility for unity we could never achieve on our own without Him. We can show humility (Phil. 2:3), because Jesus showed the ultimate humility (lowliness) in giving up the glories of heaven to come to earth, not only to live as a man, but also to die a despicable death on a cross for us (Phil. 2:5-8). The meekness and gentleness Paul showed to His brothers was really the meekness and gentleness of Christ (2 Cor. 10:1). We love others because love was first shown to us (Jn. 13:34; 1 Jn. 4:10). Loving others in the same way results in all men knowing we are disciples of Jesus (Jn. 13:35). God’s plan is for every Christian to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), continuing in the unity and edification of the truth (Eph. 4:13-16), and building one another up in most holy faith (Jude 19-21).
-Mark Day
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