"Oneness in Jesus"
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
—John 17:20-23
Through the years but especially in my youth, as campfires transitioned to worship, a favorite song to sing included the following lyrics.
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord;
And we pray that all unity will one day be restored.
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,
yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.
I remember with fondness the closeness I felt to fellow campers as we sang these words. It was like the unity we wished to be restored was somehow already present among us. But it always seemed to be just a fleeting glimpse that didn’t last much past our camping experience. What was it that drew us together, albeit for a short time? Was it the singing of this particular song? Or was it something else?
It would be hard to find someone that would not agree that unity is better than division. And yet, the lasting unity within the body of Christ that we all desire remains elusive and seemingly impossible to achieve. We preach about it, we talk about it, we all agree that to be God’s we must be one, and with the exception of small groups and branches like ours where there is a closeness of fellowship, the broader restoration if not all of Christendom remains acrimoniously separated into our various fractions. This, of course, begs the question, why? Perhaps the answer lies partially in misconceptions about what it means to be united or one in Christ.
Unity is not uniformity. When one trains for military duty, they are stripped of his or her individuality in order to create a uniform kind of unity. All new recruits are given the same haircut and required to wear the same uniform. At graduation from boot camp, all emerge looking the same, sounding the same, behaving the same, and prepared for the same kind of duty. But the body of Christ is not uniform. Paul describes this beautifully in the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians. Some are feet, some are hands, others are eyes and even others are ears. All are different. All are needed and necessary. And all are part of the same body. One part cannot say to another that it is not needed.
Unity is not unanimity. Unanimity requires absolute agreement on every matter. Would that ever be possible? Not likely. While we must agree on certain crucial matters of absolute truth like the fact that we are all sinners and Jesus died for our sins and rose again taking our nature and our place in satisfying the demands of justice, we have the freedom to disagree on many less weighty matters without having to forfeit love or acceptance. Even vigorous discourse and debate are acceptable in these smaller matters when it is done in love and when we honor and prefer one another. (Romans 12:10)
Unity is not unification. I don’t think Jesus is half as disturbed as we seem to be at times by the existence of various fractions of the restoration or even the various churches in Christendom. The manner in which some have separated themselves from others likely breaks his heart, and agreeably the doctrines of some are not as pure as others; but do our differences on nonessential matters and maintaining distinct identities endanger unity? Our tendency is to highlight our differences which just creates unrest, lack of trust, even anger and resentment. Pride enters in as we spend our energies trying to prove that we are right, and others are wrong. What if we highlighted our agreements? We might just find out that we are closer together than we realize. Walls would come down and we would grow closer together.
The oneness or unity that Jesus prayed for will not be found in some man-made forcing function that drives us all to dress and act the same or drives us all to raise our hands in unison over every business meeting matter or even drives us all to join together under some single organizational umbrella. There are plenty of examples where this has been tried and failed in recent decades. And when we look further back, we can even see the more horrible atrocities of the dark ages all done in the name of unity. Satan works hard at dividing us, and we, it seems, work just as hard to keep it that way.
The oneness or unity that Jesus prayed for will not be found in the machinations of men but will only be found when we are in Him and He in us. Paul says it this way; "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:5) When He fills us, we see everything differently. We see as He sees. We think as He thinks. We act as He acts. We love as He loves. And when we do … the oneness we desire emerges … naturally and beautifully just like it did at those long-ago campfires when we sang “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.” It wasn’t the words or the singing that brought us together, it was the Spirit that rested upon us, and it was glorious.
During the month of May, we will be exploring this oneness that is at the very heart of what Jesus prayed just prior to His death. Sermons will be preached on passages referenced above from the opening verses of Philippians 2, Romans 12, and 1 Corinthians 12. Ponder them, pray over them and pray that the times of refreshing will come soon that the unity we all desire will one day soon be restored.