Unity among Christians

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it...It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work (Ephesians 4:1-16).

On more than one occasion, St. Paul has compared the Church on earth to the ‘body of Christ.’ When we listen to this analogy, we usually focus on the idea that no matter how diverse we are, each Christian has a part to play in Christ’s Church. But there is another focus in today’s Epistle lesson, which is what we will consider today—growing together in unity of faith and love.

Paul identifies Jesus as the head, and the Church as His body. In this sense, Jesus is the one who does the thinking for the Church—Jesus establishes the priorities, Jesus sets the goals, and Jesus puts the Church to work to achieve His purposes. As for His body the Church? Well, that’s us. We are the Church—you, me, and every person the world over who looks to Jesus for leadership in life and mercy when that leadership is ignored. The Church of Christ on earth is made up of everyone who claims allegiance to Jesus alone as their Lord and Savior; in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 Paul writes, no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. Allegiance to Jesus is proof of God’s saving presence in the human heart.

Christ is the head of the Church; this means that we, who comprise His Church, are to carry out His commands. And what are those commands? Paul tells us that we are to speak the truth in love, and in this way grow in faith and love, until we reach unity in faith and the knowledge of the Son of God; this will lead to us becoming a mature body, reflective of Christ’s nature.

Okay, so what does all that mean? Let’s take it a step at a time. The goal Christ sets for us is to become united in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God. Unity is essential for the proper working of the human body. I'm sure you've had the experience of having an arm or leg ‘fall asleep’ because you sat or laid in one position for too long. If you let that leg fall completely asleep, it was impossible to walk on it until feeling started to come back; if you let that arm fall completely asleep, your hand was virtually useless to you. Now apply this to the Church. If the Church is Christ’s body, and a member of the Church is allowed to fall asleep, not only is that person useless to the Lord, but the entire Church is impeded in doing the Lord’s work as well.

A member of Christ’s body can ‘fall asleep’ in many different ways. He might start taking the Church for granted and stop participating in the work of Christ, by failing to tell others about Jesus or by failing to support mission work through his giving. But one may ‘fall asleep’ in other ways. The reason that an arm or leg goes numb is because pressure has prevented blood vessels from bringing oxygen from the lungs, causing the cells in the limb to weaken. We can see the same effect from air pollution—in major cities, there are days when many people are warned to take care, or breathing the polluted air may cause health problems. The cells of their bodies might not receive the pure oxygen that they need to stay healthy.

We can compare polluted air to false teachings about God. Many people weaken their bodies by breathing polluted air, by listening to people who mix the pollution of false teachings into the pure oxygen of the Gospel of the Son of God. The Bible is very clear that acts of homosexuality are repugnant to God, yet many Christians choose to ignore the Scriptures in regard to this teaching, even going so far as to appoint gays or lesbians to positions of church leadership. The Bible is very clear that bringing a life to an end is God’s prerogative alone, yet there are Christian churches that ignore this teaching and pay for abortions for their workers through their insurance plans. The Bible is very clear that in a way we cannot understand, Jesus’ body and blood is present in the bread and wine of Holy Communion and brings us forgiveness from sin, but there are Christian churches that claim such a thing to be impossible and teach that Communion is merely a remembrance of Jesus’ death. And the Bible is very clear that we are only made acceptable to God by trusting that Jesus’ death on the cross as our substitute has completely rescued us from God’s holy anger at our sins, but there are Christian churches that limit Christ’s work by teaching that, in addition, you have to live the best life that you can or you may end up in hell anyway.

All over the world, there are Christians who are breathing in polluted air, Gospel tainted by false teachings—and weakened by these false teachings, they too are in danger of falling asleep like the complacent Christian. They too are being deprived of the pure oxygen of Christ’s saving promises. They too are weakened and unable to help the body of Christ grow and work as it should. This is why Paul emphasizes that unity in knowledge of the Son of God is just as important as unity in faith.

So how do we achieve unity in faith and knowledge? Paul tells us that we do it by speaking the truth in love. Jesus serves as our model. Jesus never let a person wallow in his sin unchallenged; Jesus never let a sinner off by making excuses like "other people do it" or "it makes me feel good" or "this is the way I am." Jesus always told the truth, and the truth is that Scripture tells us what sin is, and that we are all guilty of ignoring those truths. But Jesus always told God’s truth in love. Every time that Jesus challenged a sinner, it was for the purpose of getting that person to admit that they were wrong, say they were sorry, and beg Jesus to take over leadership of their life. Jesus said, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:17). Jesus told people the truth about sin, the truth about hell, and the truth about God’s forgiving love offered through Jesus so that every believer could be released from a life of slavery to sin and guilt and depression; Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:31-32).

This is the way that we find unity among Christians, unity in the body of Christ. We find unity through Jesus and His truth alone. We only find unity when we study God’s Word and ignore the voices of human reason. Human reason claims, "You can’t believe that, it doesn’t make sense." Human reason tries to convince us, "What was true 2,000 years ago in the Middle East can’t apply to your situation in America today." But we can’t apply human reason to interpreting the Bible, because Scripture warns us, There is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10). By the nature of human birth, no one is righteous, no one is spiritually ‘in tune’ with God. Nor can we allow trends in modern society to act as judge over the truths of God because Paul cautions us, has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (1 Corinthians 1:20) Since the human mind is darkened by sin, how can we trust the human mind to interpret God’s pure truth? This is why Luther taught that one of the pillars of the Christian Church must be "by Scripture Alone". Human opinions can never be given the final say over the Word God.

Unity comes about through willing submission to one leader. Paul reminds us that our head is Jesus. And while it is our duty to follow His lead, sometimes we forget that the head of the body also serves another purpose. The head is what keeps the body safe from danger and cares for the body when it is sick or injured. It is the head that refuses to eat a poisonous mushroom because it knows that such food will sicken the body. It is the head that tells the body what to do to work out a muscle cramp and bring relief from suffering. This is also part of Christ’s role as head of the Church. As our head, we need to trust that Jesus will take care of our every bodily need; this is why we pray, Give us each day our daily bread. As our head, we need to trust that Jesus will keep us safe; this is why we pray, And lead us not into the hard testing, but deliver us from the Evil One. It is because we trust Jesus to be wiser than us that we submit to His leadership in our lives by praying, yet not as I want, but as You want.

The body of Christ is intended to grow in unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God; we do this by submitting to our Lord’s wisdom and leadership in our lives. This means that we study the Scriptures to reduce our misunderstandings of God’s unchanging truth. This means that we pray to God for direction in every decision that we make in our daily lives. When we live this way, with the help of the Holy Spirit living within us, we head towards spiritual maturity—we start to look a bit more like Christ. And what does Christ look like? He looks like this: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). When we look to Christ for mercy and for leadership, He gives us the gift of forgiving love—a love that moves us to forgive others as we ourselves have been forgiven. It is this forgiveness that unites us to Christ our head, and it is this forgiveness that allows us to live with each other in peace.

Christ, our head, has work for we the body to do. We are to be growing in unity so that we can reach out to others and offer them the peace that unity with God brings into troubled hearts. Some would argue that all Christians should just ignore their differences and focus on where they can find agreement—but sweeping differences under the rug will never result in the true unity Christ’s Church needs to be about His work. It is only be submitting together to the whole truth of Scripture, it is only by seeking mercy from God when we stray from that truth, that we can grow towards unity with God and with our fellow Christians. May our Lord Jesus open your heart and mind to the eternal truths of God, and may that truth set you free to serve Him in unity and peace.