Articles
The Call for Unity
The Call For Unity
“…being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph. 4:3)
“…that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us…” (John 17:21)
Growing up in the 80s and 90s, it seemed like every time a moderately famous person was in front of a microphone, they mentioned world peace. It seemed like almost every question could be answered with a reference to a desire for world peace. By the late 90s to early 2000s, the call for world peace became something of a meme ( to borrow a term from the social media era) a joke for sit coms and commedians.
Of course, the pursuit of world peace is no joke. It is an honorable thing to pursue. But how exactly would the most recent Miss America winner bring that about? The joke was in the way something like ending all war had become a throwaway line for anyone wishing to appear noble.
I am afraid we have begun using the term unity today in a similar way (by “we,” I mean those of us who profess to be followers of Christ). Unity is a noble cause. As we should note from the verses cited above, unity is a divinely given pursuit. But, like calls for world peace, the difficulty is in the details.
In the broader religious world, the denominations seem to have settled on a nice compromise. As long as we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, we have unity. While I am sure that this would be shocking to the founders of many of these groups, the real difficulty lies in fitting this idea into a passage like John 17:21. When Jesus prayed that His disciples would be one as He and the Father are one, it is hard to imagine that He had in mind little more than an agreement on one essential fact. The depth of their unity is why we often turn to this same passage to demonstrate that the members of the Godhead agreed on all things, so much so that three divine persons can be viewed as one.
Another problem plaguing the discussion around unity is the direction of the unity sought. Let me explain. I hear a lot of discussion on Ephesians 4 that suggests the unity Paul has in mind is primarily horizontal. By horizontal, I mean between people. In other words, you and I need to learn how to get along, to be united. However, the context shows that horizontal unity is more a product of the unity of which Paul speaks. Vertical unity, i.e., unity with God, is what we must all be pursuing.
Notice the context in which verse three resides. Paul begins the chapter by encouraging disciples to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” The first thing we should notice here is that Paul provides a standard, and that standard is objective. My actions, attitudes, and motives can be measured against that standard and found worthy or unworthy.
Secondly, that standard is the calling that disciples are responding to. Undoubtedly, this refers to the Gospel call (2Thess. 2:13-14; Phil. 1:27; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:12). It is His calling to which He has summoned His people (Eph. 1:18). In verse three he speaks of the “unity of the Spirit” to which he adds “in the bond of peace.” “Peace,” we find in Ephesians 2:13-18, is found in the work of Jesus Christ, the cross, the Gospel. Paul goes on in 4:4-6 to show us that this unity is rooted in the very nature of God and the message He has given us.
The beauty of this pursuit should be obvious. If two people seek God through the Gospel, their hearts and lives will be shaped by this glorious message (they become humble, gentle, patient, and tolerant) and inevitably draw closer to one another. It is inescapable.
On the other hand, if they are pursuing horizontal unity, there could be a completely different result. They may become united to one another and draw no closer to God. Biblical unity is about more than just being on the same page. It is also about who wrote the page.
The Jew-Gentile problem Paul deals with in Ephesians demonstrates this principle. Fundamentally, the Judiazing Christians denied the sufficiency of Jesus’s blood to save. This led to attempts to enforce the Law on the Gentiles, which led to disagreements about everything from the need for circumcision to what meats could be eaten. The solution was to be humble, gentle, patient, and tolerant while seeking God’s wisdom.
This process did lead to some brethren being at odds with one another. And that was terrible. However, it would have been much worse had the Gentile brethren been circumcised in the pursuit of horizontal unity (Gal. 5:4).
We need to be careful not to turn molehills into mountains, which can destroy our unity. However, we need to allow the Gospel to determine which issues are mountains and which are molehills. Only when we approach unity from this perspective can we “walk worthy of the calling to which [we] have been called.”
Shawn Chancellor
- The_Call_for_Unity.pdf (23.47 kB)
