Unity Among Brethren

As I stated earlier, no one can enjoy any spiritual blessings outside of Christ. They are only found in Him. One of those is being a part of His body, the church of God, and there are many commands about being united amongst the brothers and sisters.

In addition to being united in Jesus, we also are to be united with each other. God’s children are described in the Bible as His family. Even Jesus said, “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). We can picture most families coming together but God’s family transcends that of just our relatives. All people of every tribe and culture can become a disciple of Christ (Galatians 3:28). That’s the beauty of His church. All of us coming together and sharing that one goal of becoming like our Lord in the resurrection.

There was a lot of bitterness though back during the New Testament times. The Jews and Gentiles really didn’t know how to get along. They all had their different cultures and traditions, much like we do today. The New Testament writers had to remind them constantly to stay united amongst themselves and share in the love of Christ.

The first epistle to the church in Corinth is a great example of this. The saints there were divided on a number of things. As soon as Paul gets done greeting them in the first couple of verses, he gets right into the lesson. The brethren in Corinth were divided over which teacher they liked the best (vs 10-17). Paul needed to remind them to focus on Christ and not the men that teach about Him. Only Christ should get the glory.

Chapter 12 also deals with this issue. Not only were the Corinthians divided over which disciple they liked, they were also divided on which spiritual gift they thought was most important. They were quarreling over whose gift was better. Trying to relate, I feel that I may have gotten caught up with this as well.

In the first eleven verses, Paul reminds them they are all in Christ and that all of their gifts came from the same Holy Spirit. Sure, there were different gifts but they all came from the same place. Then, starting in verse twelve, he goes back to the body analogy. A body has many different moving parts but they are all a part of one body. We all may have different gifts and talents, but fighting over who has the better ones is futile. Why not work together to achieve something greater for Christ? What I lack, you may be great in and vice versa. We ought to be building each other up instead of tearing each other down.

This is what the New Testament writers mean when they say to “be of one mind” (Romans 15:6; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Philippians 2:2; 1 Peter 3:8). They were teaching us to be unified in our thinking, to be spiritual minded and walk according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1), and focus on things above (Colossians 3:1-2). Only then can we get more work done. When spiritual things are our priority, there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

It does not mean that we all need to act alike, think alike, dress alike, and have the same hair style. That is not what it means to be united and have one mind. It doesn’t mean we all have to agree on everything in our lives. Being united means that in spite of our difference of opinions and backgrounds, we can still love one another and work together to build better communities and grow the kingdom of God. This is what the church needs to be. We strive for something greater and show the world the love we have for one another (John 13:35).

Ephesians 4 is another good example of this. Paul tells the church at Ephesus to walk and live together, “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (v. 3) He then lists what many call ‘The Seven Ones’. Verses 4-6 say, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (emphasis added). Remember, back in those days, they believed ‘seven’ was the perfect number.

We have already established that this can stand for the numerical value, as in there is only one church; but the context here is talking about unity. If we are going to belong to the one body, we are going to be unified with it. We are united with the one Lord upon our one baptism and received the one Spirit. We now share in one faith and one hope in serving the one God who is able to show us a what this world truly can be now and what the world to come will be like after the resurrection. God’s family working in perfect harmony. What an amazing thought!

Let us pattern ourselves after the church at Jerusalem. When it first began, “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.” (Acts 2:44-45). They truly were a family. Skip ahead a couple of chapters and we read still, “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.” (Acts 4:32). This is what the church of God is supposed to look like. This is what it’s meant for. When we’re united, we’ll love one another (John 13:34; Romans 12:10), encourage one another (Colossians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11), pray for each other (James 5:16), serve one another (Galatians 5:13; 1 Peter 5:5), and forgive one another (Colossians 3:13; Galatians 6:2) just as Jesus did for us. You begin to see something beautiful when we focus on what we have in common rather than our differences. That’s what makes us different from the world and pleasing to God (Psalm 133:1).

A great example of this would be two of Jesus’ own apostles; Simon the zealot and Matthew the tax collector. As I write this, politics has many people at odds with one another. It can be very divisive to those who have an immature mindset. This example can show that even people with opposing political views can live in peace.

Back in the New Testament times, there was group called the Zealots. They descended from the Maccabean lineage and were very passionate about getting their views expressed, at times, even conveying it through violent measures. We might call them the “terrorists” of our day. This is the group that Simon belonged to.

Then, you had Matthew who worked for the government. A career that was often described as being a “sellout” to your people for collecting the taxes. They were on the complete opposite side of the political spectrum from where the Zealots stood. Yet, these two men were able to live together, study together, and fellowship with one another under the guidance of Christ. You might say that this is one miracle that rarely anyone ever talks about.

Why is that? Well, remember what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2 11-16 to the Gentiles there, “Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” Jesus brings people together of all sorts of different backgrounds and cultures. He has torn down that wall that separates the Jews and Gentiles, who hated each other, so we can walk in peace with one another. When we have Christ at the forefront of our minds, having a mature outlook on life, we can be unified in Him through the Holy Spirit with anyone.