That They May Be One There Is Only One Church God has only one Church – consisting of all the called-out saints. “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one Body, being many, are one Body: so also is Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12) We need to be involved with brethren from other groups as much as possible and to show Christian love to all of the children of God. It is important to seek out others who are like-minded in wanting to bind up the wounds of the past and truly to let Christ’s love live in us. Jesus has one Church – and only one! “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:14-19) Loyalty to organizations that supplants loyalty to the Body of Christ is misdirected. Organizations should magnanimously set the highest standard of outgoing openness. Loyalty to God and His Truth must be the central theme for members of God’s Church today. Jesus said, “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” so we know the Church will survive. We need to be part of the solution. God’s word and church history give testimony to the fact that the Church of God will not die out. It now falls to all of us, as brethren, to take up the mantle of true Christianity. So many prominent leaders have not. There exists a state of self-satisfaction in many groups. This gives us the opportunity – no, the responsibility – to build fellowship among God’s children. Make no mistake about it! We are up against a most formidable foe. Satan has done his dirty work. People will say when we approach them, “You must want me to join your Church.” “You are not with our organization. Obviously you have missed the mark somewhere.” Every biblical verse we cite will be scrutinized for every nuance of difference as we attempt to rebuild bridges of trust. How do we begin to fellowship openly in a loving, meaningful way? This must be our desire, because it is Christ’s desire. One on one is the only way to be truly unified. Christian love involves daily action in the lives of others. That effort is best achieved person to person. First the unity and oneness of God’s children must be cultivated. Those who are properly living their Christianity are the “seed in good ground” in the parable of the sower. Jesus said that they will bring forth the fruit that He desires. “But that [seed] on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:15) What does Jesus Christ expect the elect to be doing right now? God promises that He will not allow His chosen elect to be deceived. He prophesied that our sons and daughters will speak the Truth – just about now – at this end time. That means that there will be a people of God, living their Christianity at His return. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17) Even though we, in our physical fellowships, are separated by many miles, the true brethren can become one in Spirit. We must have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts to be a part of the restoration of the common brotherhood of believers. We cannot love the brethren unless we love God. The key to oneness lies in our surrender to God our Father and Jesus Christ. When we are surrendered to Them – not seeking to please men or an organization – we begin to find oneness with one another. “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” (1 John 3:17) It is understandable that the churches of this world are unable to come together in unity, but it is inexcusable that the true Children of God are making so few attempts to be unified in the way Christ intended. When the Bible talks about love, it is not a feeling or an emotion. Christian love is a practical involvement, a caring, and consideration for others according to all Godly standards. This love is our gateway to God – and there are no shortcuts. We must be actively involved in extending Godly love to every one of the saints. “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1 John 4:8) “And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.” (1 John 3:23) John repeats Jesus’ command that Christians also lay down their lives for one another. Nothing less is sufficient. Jesus laid down His life – died – so that we might live. That is how much He loves us! “This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” Let us read this Scripture like this: “This is My commandment, That you love one another, in the very same way that I loved you.” (John 15:12) Brethren, are we willing to go that far to establish unity and oneness with our brothers and sisters in Christ? When we are led by God’s Holy Spirit, we will lay our lives down just as Jesus Christ did. We will take a stand against all cruelty – and not close our eyes to it. Every time our brethren are abused, we will come to their aid and support them against their evil persecutors. If it costs us our jobs, savings, security, being put out of organizations, or even our lives, we will lay our lives down for one of our brethren – as Jesus gave us example. This is our Christianity in action – not merely sentiments, platitudes, or religious-sounding talk. Every time any of our brethren is in need, we will “put it all on the line” for any one of them. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.” (Romans 5:6-7) What better test of our Christianity could
there be? Yes, the scattered plight of the Church of God is a terrible
predicament – and a wonderful opportunity to show God where our heart
resides. The fact that the Church is prophesied to go through trials
and scattering is not a reason to welcome or embrace the devastation in
the Church of God. Ezekiel foretold that Jesus Christ would definitely
gather the scattered flock upon His return. This is an indication that
we will not be completely successful in “rounding up” all of the
dispersed brethren into one fellowship. That indication in no way
undermines the command to love one another or Jesus Christ’s desire
“that they may be one.” Christ is just as emphatic when He says
that He will require His flock at their hand – those responsible for
driving away the brethren. “God will hold the shepherds to account
for the loss of the flock,” There is an indictment here of those who do not seek their brethren who were scattered. Jesus Christ denounces those who are not practicing real Christianity. “The diseased have ye not strengthened,
neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up
that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was
driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force
and cruelty have ye ruled them.” There is no division allowed here – “no schism in the body.” For some there is the temptation to draw back – to be an independent Christian – and to say, “I’ve had it with people!” or, “I’ve had it with ministers!” Some members have had “enough” of organizations – which is understandable. Too many of God’s children learned wrongly to look to the organization rather than to God. Organizations can be taken over by men of error. The mistake that “independent Christians” make is that, when they stop trusting organizations, they forget the scattered brethren also. This is Satan’s trick, and it has worked all too well. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his
brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” God’s word dictates that we always do what is Scripturally right and best for our brothers and sisters. What do we do when we sincerely reach different conclusions as to the meaning and intent of God’s Word? We need to keep in mind that, while seeking fully to know God’s Will, everyone is going to have a slightly different understanding because of his or her background and experiences. The answer is not to disfellowship innocent brethren, as has been too often done – especially when the member was retaining the truth, and the one doing the disfellowshipping was supporting an administration advocating false doctrine. “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.” (Luke 6:22) Organizations that believe they must be obeyed because they possess “authority” have lost sight of John 17:17: “Thy Word is Truth.” The Church of God is supposed to be one unified, organized body with Jesus Christ as its head – but it is not (Ephesians 5:23). What we have instead, is Christ the head – with lots of bodies! When we understand how wrong that concept is, we realize that an “independent” Christian is a contradiction in terms. A Christian must walk in light and truth and seek unity and oneness with his brethren. There is a sense of pride and arrogance in some of the groups that proudly proclaim their independence. Sometimes, it is the result of a “backlash” from the heavy-handedness and abuses of the past, but still it is not right to seek to be self-reliant, because the saints need one another. True Christians seek fellowship with all of their brethren. “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” (1 John 1:7) There is absolutely no justification for being “independent.” Christianity demands that Christians interact with all other Christians. That was God’s design from the beginning of creation. “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” (1 John 3:11) We may easily express our love toward God in heaven, but it is not properly demonstrated on earth until we truly love one another. “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have shewed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” (Hebrews 6:10) If we do not possess loving concern for other Christians, we are not being led by God’s Holy Spirit. Some have said in the past that all this talk about “love” sounds like “Protestantism.” Christian love, tempered by God’s commandments, yields Christian godliness in us. We cannot know and love our Father, unless we are actively serving our brethren. “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born [begotten] of God, and knoweth God.” (1 John 4:7) Brethren, do we grasp the importance of these instructions? Can we see how sorely deficient we have been in this area? The apostasy should have caused the true saints to pull together, yet we scattered because this dimension of loving one another was woefully lacking in so many of us. John, too, saw the lack of Christian love in the Church. He wrote after all was said and done in the first century Church of God. John had seen all the Gnosticism, false teachers, heresy, separation, division, and playing church. John then emphasized the spiritual need for genuine, loving concern for every brother and sister, because that is what was missing in the Church then – and it is still missing today! Our Father gave us the model of love by withholding nothing essential for our lives. That is the same pattern we must also build upon in expressing our love toward all others. Late in life John understood this standard so well. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10) |
|
|