The Way to Unity

Some principles on Christian unity.

Arcadio Sierra

The incarnate Word is the temple of God

The Word, the Son of God, took on flesh so that man could know God. How was that possible? John tells us in 1:14: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth." The true translation in Greek would be that Christ, when taking on flesh, "tabernacled"; that is to say, he was the true tabernacle, the true dwelling place of God on the earth. So Christ manifests the character of God, the glory of God and his intimate desires.

Christ came to show the men what the plan of God towards us is. "And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." So just as the Lord Jesus glorifies the Father, we too, Christ's Church, those of us who enjoy eternal life and the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ, are called to glorify the Son, and to make him known to all men.

We were baptized into the same body

The Lord, in his prayer, says to the Father: "And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are." (John 17:11). He begins to place an emphasis on the unity of the Church. When we read history, and we contemplate the current panorama, we see a Christianity that began to be filled with myths over the centuries. There are many spiritual realities that were stripped of their virtue and mutilated of their biblical excellence and revelation; there was a discrediting of the truth, and today many of these myths are lived out.

An aspect of the truth that was discredited was the unity of Christ's body. The Church began as one, because the Church is not an organization of the human kind; the Church is a living organism of divine origin. The Church is Christ's body, it is Christ's own life, because it is His body. 1st Corinthians 12:13 says: "For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body." The Scriptures emphatically declare that we are Christ's body. There are not two bodies of Christ. The Spirit, when baptizing us into a single body, makes us a participant of that one body; we come to be members of that body. It is a living body whose head is Jesus Christ.

But that fact, which is a spiritual and historical reality, has been stripped of its virtue throughout history. At the beginning the Church lived that reality: "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul: and not one of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common." (Acts. 4:32). There was no selfishness, there were no particular interests. The interests of the Church were the interests of the Lord. That is the authentic church life that the Lord wants us to live. That's all it was; nobody claims anything which God has put in their hands to be their own. The brothers and sisters of the first stage of the Church lived that fervour of Christ's Spirit. But, brothers and sisters, what happened throughout the centuries? This truth began to be distorted and to be mystified and the Church began to receive the influence of the world and the mythological religions.

The distortion begins

When the brothers and sisters still lived that fervour -the only Lord of the Church was the Lord Jesus Christ -, other human lords were arising. In the times of the Lord Jesus and his disciples there was an earthly, diabolical power that was represented by the Roman Caesar, with divine pretences; and that's why it is said that the obliged greeting among its citizens had to be: "Caesar is the lord." But no Christian confessed that the Caesar was his lord, because Jesus Christ was his Lord; and that was even faced at the cost of his own freedom and life. When those of the world heard the believers' asseveration, that they didn't believe in the divinity of the Caesar's dominion, nor worshiped the mythological gods of the State, then the State and the pagans declared that the Christian were atheists. What do you think about that, brothers and sisters? The true atheists accusing the true believers as being atheists!

So the Church began to live that which the Lord himself had clearly told them: "These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) So the Church understood this and could face it with his help. It didn't care about the great persecution and the mass martyrdoms that were happening. The Church lived through it because it was sure that its true homeland is not this world. But this was beginning to be lost. The State that persecuted the Church opted to offer it its hand, and the Church began to take hold it, a much weaker hand than that of the Lord, and it began to mix the existent myth with the Church.

Then new myths arose soon after that saturated romance of unfaithfulness. For example, it is true that the Lord had told the apostle Peter: "And to you I will give the keys of the Kingdom" (Matt. 16:19); it is true that Peter, with his preaching on the day of Pentecost, opened the doors of the gospel to the Jews, and later Peter, by expressed command of the Lord, also opened the doors of salvation to the gentiles in the house of Cornelius. It is true that he had the keys to open the doors of the Kingdom, but the history of Peter has not been about keys; he was mystified and somebody ended up declaring that Peter had received an earthly king's seat, and that Peter and his supposed "successors " were the only representatives of God on the earth. It was the Christendom filling up with myths. And from that mounted fallacy, a powerful earthly king came to declare and to dogmatise that he was the legitimate representative of God on the earth; but the true vicar of the Lord on the earth in the Church is the Holy Spirit.1

To the Word through the Spirit

We should be clear about that. Why are we saying these things? There are many of our brothers and sisters who want to listen, for example, as to why we don't have a temple.2 If we are the temple of God in Christ, how are we supposed to enter another temple? But, why was there a temple in Jerusalem? Why was there a temple in the Old Testament? The New Testament declares that that old testament temple was part of the symbols, of the prototypes of the spiritual truths; they were the scale models, they were the shades of the truth of Christ and the Church. An architect won't sell a client the scale model; he sells him the true finished building.

Today we have come to the truth: Jesus Christ and his Church. That is the truth. We cannot continue struggling with myths. We have to go to the Word through the Spirit. We cannot go through the Spirit without the Word, nor to the Word without the Spirit. No. Somebody says: the Spirit guides everything here. That is all very well; but the Spirit inspired the Word, and the Spirit cannot part from the Word nor act without the Word. For example, if the Word says that we have to take the Lord's Supper, then the Spirit won't say that we shouldn't take it. The Spirit cannot say that, because the Spirit revealed the truth of God to us through the Word; and if those things foment them with the argument that it is by the Spirit, we are already contributing to the division of Christ's body, and we would isolate ourselves from the rest of the body. If somebody tells you: Well, here we do whatever the Spirit tells us (omitting the Word), don't believe him. Is what you are saying, that the Spirit guides you, according to what the Word says? If it is according to the Word it is true.

Brothers and sisters, we cannot take the Word without the Spirit, because we manufacture a new myth. We have to work the Word with the Spirit. Somebody could say: "the Spirit has said that we shouldn't give an offering in this church; we won't deal with the issue of money." But the Spirit inspired offerings in the churches; the Spirit inspired the necessity of helping the poor saints, that an elder should work in the gospel, living from the gospel, etc. So, how will we say that here we won't give an offering? That is not right. It is the Spirit, but with the Word. Let us ask the Lord to free us from the myths, old and new, or those that the demons want to bring in the future. Lord, guide us in the Spirit and guide us in the Word.

The emphasis of the unity of the Church

In the Lord's priestly prayer there is an emphasis. The Lord wants us to be one. The Lord asks the Father that we be one. That emphasis begins him in verse 11; then in verse 20 is taken up again, and the Lord says to the Father: "Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word; (here the Lord is referring to us), that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me." We cannot just think that we will be one in heaven, as some theologians teach. We cannot seek that, because in heaven the world will not see us. The world has to see us now. We have to give testimony that we are Christians, that we are a living body, that we love each other and express that love, that we give testimony that Jesus Christ lives in us; by loving one another, serving one another; not gossiping against one another, in the bond of love.

In these days we have heard so much about love. Several brothers and sisters have spoken to one other about love, and the Word speaks about it. "And above all these put on love which it is the bond of perfection" (Colossians 3:14). Love, but whose love? It is the love of the Lord, because we have the Lord and he is like a motor; he doesn't want to be switched off. He wants to be giving energy, he wants to be filling us up with him; Christ wants to be working in us, in our soul, changing, transforming, metamorphosing our mind, our feelings, so that we act according to that transformation.

It is a transformation of love that leads us to unity, to love one another, to keep and to live the unity of the body. Let us look in Ephesians 4: "I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and meekness, (if there is no humility in us, we cannot have unity. A person who considers himself above the other brothers and sisters, cannot understand about the life of the unity of the body) with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; (nor can there be unity without love) giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

Brothers and sisters, unity is not something that we will create; the Spirit of God already did that; but it is our responsibility as believers, to keep that unity. We should keep that unity created from the beginning by the Lord. Then the Word speaks of seven factors that characterize the unity of the Church, but the first one that appears is that it is a body, a single body; and that manifestation of a single body should be seen by the world, just as the Lord declares in his prayer: "that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me" The world must see unity, that manifestation must be carried out now; because in unity we can give the glory to Christ, to manifest the glory of the Lord. The Lord himself says: "And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one" (v. 22).

The truth in love

Let us look at Ephesians 4:14 now: "that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; (let us pay attention to verse 15) but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ; " You cannot follow the truth and teach it, share it, without love; nor must love be expressed without truth.

To transmit the truth without love can hurt; the truth without love is cold, it kills and it offends. When I "tell the truth straight up" to my brothers, it is because I don't have love, so I can distance myself more from them. The truth must be manifested in love. Truth without love is like a dagger that bury into someone. There are instances when brothers and sisters never look at you again because you told him the truth straight up", without love. On the other hand, the love without truth doesn't give any fruit; because I won't tell you the truth if it might hurt you, and you will continue full of errors.

But what type of truth is this? Is it an organizational truth? The truth of the traditions of the men? The truth of an ecclesiastical faction? The truth of a distorted doctrine? No; it is the truth of the Word of God by the Spirit. Because of the love that I have for you, I cannot share your errors in fundamental questions. There are differences in concepts that are not fundamental; there are outlying differences within what the Christendom lives. There are things that don't harm the fundamental truths of our faith, like the fundamental truth of the salvation in Jesus Christ's work, the truth of the divinity and humanity of Christ, the virgin birth of the Lord, the truth of the Trinity, the truth of the cross, the truth of Christ's blood, the incarnation of the Word of God, the resurrection and glorification of the Lord.

There are matters that don't affect these truths, like those who think that the Church will be raptured before the great tribulation, whilst others think that it will be afterwards. Well, they are things that can be studied calmly in due course of time, but that don't break up the unity we have with our brothers and sisters. We can look at it later in the Word. This doesn't divide you and I, because it is not a fundamental truth.

But when there are fundamental truths at stake, I cannot accept errors that will stray from a fundamental biblical truth. This verse in Ephesians emphasizes the truth in love. You cannot work in love without the truth either; we have to be careful in this. And we are saying all of this because we are trying to work on delicate grounds at this time. The Church of the Lord is dismembered in thousands of fractions that have fomented the division of the body. The Lord is working in the unity of the Church. The Lord says: "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me." (v. 23)

Brothers and sisters, let us read the following words of the Lord in Philippians 2: "If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, (referring to the love of the Lord) if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, (deep and honest), make full my joy, (Paul's beautiful words to the Philippians) that ye be of the same mind, (experiencing the same feeling; all the brothers and sisters won't be able to feel the same thing without the help of the Lord; the Lord by His Spirit must work with our "self", and transform our way of thinking and our way of feeling; our mind and our feelings which hinder the unity of Christ's body) having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." This love that Paul refers to here is the love of the Lord, because our love is never constant nor unified, because merely human love is selfish, it is not true love.

Often our tendency is to try to love those people who obviously love us, who pay attention to us and include us; but the Lord is not like that; the Lord loves us all equally. We can be surrounded by brothers and sisters who love one another; but in eternal values the important thing is not that they love me, congratulate me, or visit me. That can even end up puffing up my ego. So, what is the important thing? It is that I love, that I give of myself that which the Lord has given me abundantly in the material realm as well as in the spiritual one; that I share my time, my knowledge, my goods, my talents, that is the important thing in the ' praxis' of the unity of the Church.

I cannot present myself before the judgment seat of Christ and tell him: Lord, I present you these thousands of brothers and sisters who love me. Then the Lord will tell me: But do you love them? Were you interested in them? I cannot go there and give account of those that love me; I must give account of my own love before the Judge, a received love, love from the Lord, because my own love is selfish.

Paul continues by saying: "make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, (of a single spirit, of a single soul), of one mind " We already read that in the primitive church the brothers and sisters had all things in common, and no one said that something was his own of what was possessed, because in their hearts everything belonged to everyone. " doing nothing through faction or through vainglory; but in lowliness of mind (what kind of humility is this? Paul tells us:), each counting other better than himself." Here we have the tremendous example of the humility of the Lord Jesus. Christ didn't esteem being equal with God so as to be given over for us. How different we men work! We cling to our Isaac (unlike Abraham).

What may our Isaac be to us? Our political, social and religious position; we cling to our salary, to people, to the things that men provide us; we cling to our environment, to all that has an attractive, moving appearance; we cling to our religious and cultural traditions. There are many things that tie us which we don't want to loose, and while we don't loose them we won't be able to come to a degree in which you and I are equal. The Lord Jesus came to break inequalities. He came to sit down at a single table; with imperialists and the "guerrilla" fighters, the members of the Sanhedrin and with the fishermen of Galilee. Those schematic inequalities don't take place in Christ's body.

To keep the unity of the Spirit in Christ's Church, I must decrease for love of the Lord. I mustn't wait for others to be brought low before me, so that when that happens, only then will I consider that there are already reasons for being of one accord, for being equal; no. I must take the initiative of descending from my high pedestal (one that may well be illusory and utopian), and begin to consider you as superior to myself.

We see that the Christendom became so distorted that they have replaced biblical truth revealed by the Spirit, for the traditions of humans; as the Lord says in Matthew 15. There the Lord also says something to us believers of the 21st Century, not just to the Pharisees and those that listened to him. "he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? " (v. 3). And verse 6 repeats this and clarifies it: "And ye have made void the word of God because of your tradition." A tradition that doesn't come from divine revelation, may have existed for a hundred years, or five hundred, or two thousand years, but if that tradition tries to replace the Word of God, it is invalidating it, and filling the brothers and sisters with myths and lies, and diverting them from the true truth (forgive the repetition) of God by the Word and the Spirit.

Copyright © AGUAS VIVAS | CHILE 2005