Over the past 10 weeks, we have been focusing on one crucial aspect of Christianity — unity. All who have entrusted our life to the atoning sacrifice and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ are made one in Him through His one Spirit born in us. This has sweeping, life-changing implications, as we have been seeing. So today, let’s look at oneness from an entirely different angle — what Biblical unity is not.
Christian unity is not compromise. Paul exhorts the Church: “We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.”1
Christian unity is not appeasement. It does not capitulate under the judgmental notion of “social relevance.” For instance, when certain Jewish legalists visited a group of believers, Peter “drew back and separated himself [from the Gentiles], fearing [these legalists.]”2 Paul rightly chastised Peter in front of — and for the good of — the entire group.
Christian unity is not uniformity. “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.”3 We have different callings, as well.
Christian unity is not mere “Christian nice.” James writes: “Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, ‘Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well’ — but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?”4 Rather in unity we are called to “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.”5
Christian unity is not faithless alliance. God pronounced judgement on Israel for seeking security elsewhere. “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord! . . . The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.”6 We look to God alone, for our wellbeing.
Christian unity — true oneness — does not exist outside of Christ. For everyone who would believe in Him, Jesus interceded “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me.”7
Through Jeremiah, God promised, “I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.”8 To which we respond . . .
Yes, Lord, may this be true of us, Your people in Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.
1 Ephesians 4:14-15 NLT
2 Galatians 2:12 ESV
3 Romans 12:4-6 NIV
4 James 2:15-16 NLT
5 Galatians 6:2 NLT
6 Isaiah 31:1, 3 ESV
7 John 17:21-23 NIV
8 Jeremiah 32:39 ESV
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Paul Nordman—Author 