Where is the Unity?

John 17: 20-23 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 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. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

The modern church today is fractured on so many levels. Between doctrinal differences and compromising God's word for the sake of the illusion of tolerance it is becoming increasingly difficult to find any unity within the church. One can say they are a Christian but the denominational question can have ten different responses. But disunity runs far deeper than this in the church today. It runs through each denomination as well as through each individual church, as we continue to lose our focus on what Jesus Christ commanded us to do until He returns.

Taking a look at the above verses from the Gospel of John, we see a beautiful moment in the ministry of Christ when He is praying to the Father. He has just finished praying for his disciples when He prays the above verses. Is he praying for doctrinal minutia or denominational pettiness? Is he praying that the people who believe in Him be politically active and seek to fix the world on their own? Is He praying for pseudo-self-righteousness and moral superiority for His followers? When Jesus Christ Himself sat down to pray to God for us as believers today what was the one thing He prayed for? Unity.

Let's break down this prayer so we can better understand the plea of our Lord and Savior. After praying for His disciples, Jesus makes it a point to say to God that He prays not only for the 12 but for those who will "believe in me through their message". That would be us beloved. Specifically Jesus prays that all of us can be one and the example He leaves us is that we should approach this as Jesus related to the Father. He wants us to be one in them. Why did Jesus leave us this blueprint? Because He knew the depraved and selfish nature of man would seek to win out. It seeks to win out in each of us and Jesus is letting us know here that the way to be unified in the face of the flesh we fight against every day is only accomplished through God; by being in God. Sounds simple but yet we can still fall short in this too easily. The point Jesus is making is that no matter what the differences are between you and your brother and sister, your unity should still be based on God and the fact that you are both in Him. This has to be more important that anything else and as long as it is, there will be unity.

Once you allow something else to become more important that is when disunity comes in to play. We see it happen every day. Someone gets hurt in the church, maybe even by leadership. The result is that the hurt or the action taken against you becomes more important than unity in the body. How serious does God take this? He doesn't even want us making a sacrificial offering to Him if we know there is disunity:

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5: 23-24

That includes a sacrifice of praise! The mistake we often make is we think we are somehow "right" and that makes the behavior somehow acceptable to God. Note that it doesn't even matter who is right or wrong. As long as there is disunity, both sides are wrong. We live in a society that preaches the opposite. The world will tell you to take revenge if you have been wronged. The world will tell you that you have a right to draw a line in the sand and be petulant. The world says that there is a right side and a wrong side. But Jesus has told us here that His way is different. It is required that the unity of the body be more important than any individual difference. Jesus also has compared merely being angry with a brother to murder. That is how serious He takes it.

I understand these are tough teachings to internalize. We like to sometimes breeze by them when we read; maybe hope we do not have to actually work on their application. I know it is hard to turn that other cheek beloved. I know it hurts more when the offense comes from within the church itself. But there is more at stake than our personal feelings. Jesus explains in the key verses why unity is so important:

May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17: 23

If you are hurt and holding something against a brother or sister than it affects your witness for Christ. If you spread disunity in the body you are actively working against the plan of God. It is the enemy that wants us fighting amongst ourselves because it prevents us from be effective for Christ. We were designed to work together in harmony:

But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 1Corinthians 12: 18-26

Take note of the truths in these verses beloved. God has arranged all the parts of His body of believers. You cannot say that you do not need your brother or sister. There should be no division in the body and we should have equal concern for each other. When one part suffers, we all suffer.

Bitterness and resentment are a poison running through your veins. It will eventually consume you if not resolved. Usually, the pattern then is that the poison wants to spread; misery loves company. Instead of sowing seeds of the love of Christ we can start sowing seeds of disunity. We see it every day in the church. Gossip starts, even possibly with good intention, but ends up as malicious slander. James warns us against such slander:

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. James 4: 11   God has a work for us to do beloved. There is a lost and dying world that is living in the same darkness Christ saved us from. He did not save us to bicker and divide ourselves against each other. I understand that it is a difficult teaching to accept that your hurt may not be as important as you thought. In the light of what Christ has done and wants to continue to do in the lives of people everywhere, it just isn't. When we look at the intimate moment of prayer to the Father, Jesus Christ did not pray that His people have a sense of faux righteousness. He did not pray that we hold onto our hurts and spread it through the body. He prayed for unity because it is only together can the body be truly effective for the Kingdom work He has for it to do. In his letter to the church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul addresses this succinctly:

 

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4: 31-32

Christ forgave you without any conditions. He forgave you without any "buts". Forgiveness means forgetting also. It means no resentment. It means you hold nothing against the person and you speak nothing against the person. We read things like seven time seventy and we think it is just a cute catch phrase. It is not. That is exactly what Jesus meant. Why? Because I can guarantee that no matter how much someone has hurt me, I have hurt God more with my rebellion and sin. No matter how many times I have to forgive someone I can guarantee that God has had to forgive me more times and for more egregious offenses. By refusing to forgive, or by dressing the words of forgiveness up in the actions of disunity, I am essentially saying that my hurt is stronger in me than Christ is in me. God help me if I ever get to the point that anything is stronger in me than Jesus Christ.

Anthony Wade September 24, 2008