Maintaining Unity In The Local Congregation

Following Jesus Without Denominationalism
Maintaining Unity In The Local Congregation
The challenge of "Following Jesus Without Denominationalism" to a great extent revolves around the problem of religious division that begins in the local church. Every denomination today began as a result of religious division. And religious division normally finds it origin with brethren in a local congregation unable to resolve their differences. While having the same standard of authority is essential to unity in religious matters, I also stated that it alone is insufficient, as suggested in this quote by Barton W. Stone:
"But should all the professors of Christianity reject all their various creeds and names, and agree to receive the Bible alone, and be called by no other name than Christian, will this unite them? No, we are fully convinced that unless they all possess the spirit of that book and name they are far, very far, from Christian union." (As quoted by J. M. Powell, The Cause We Plead: A Story Of The Restoration Movement, 20th Century Christian, 1987, p. 56).
It is essential that those who seek to allow the Bible, and in particular the New Testament, to be their standard of authority possess the proper Christian attitudes and to apply those attitudes when handling the Word of God -- Otherwise, the "sword of the Spirit" (Ep 6:17) will be abused to the detriment of all parties involved. To appreciate what I mean, in this lesson we shall examine how Paul dealt with the problem of division in the early church, and the solution he offered that we might "maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." We begin by first noticing what Paul described as a major cause of division by looking at the situation at Corinth.

Paul found it necessary to write "that there be no divisions among you" - 1 Co 1:10. There were contentions among them, manifested by breaking up into parties and calling themselves after different men - 1 Co 1:11-12 "Several people from Chloe's family have already reported to me that you keep arguing with each other. They have said that some of you claim to follow me, while others claim to follow Apollos or Peter or Christ." -- Sounds a lot like religious division today, doesn't it?

Let’s look at Paul’s evaluation of the problem. As Paul wrote to them, he realized he was dealing with "babes in Christ", who instead of being "spiritual" were "carnal" - 1 Co 3:1-3a "My friends, you are acting like the people of this world. That's why I could not speak to you as spiritual people. You are like babies as far as your faith in Christ is concerned. So I had to treat you like babies and feed you milk. You could not take solid food, and you still cannot, because you are not yet spiritual." Indeed, the root of their envy, strife, and divisions was their carnality - 1 Co 3:3b "You are jealous and argue with each other. This proves that you are not spiritual and that you are acting like the people of this world." -- Conditions today are not really all that much different; where division exists, carnality (or spiritual immaturity) is often a major cause of the problem! This is not to say that there are never any substantive issues at stake when division occurs. But any hope for resolving differences over such issues is stifled when the parties involved are filled with envy and strife. This may help us appreciate why Paul so frequently focused his attention on the development of attitudes which increase the likelihood of overcoming differences so that unity might prevail.

Let's take a look at these attitudes for maintaining unity. To the church at Ephesus, Paul taught the virtue of "Lowliness" - Ep 4:2 "Always be humble and gentle. Patiently put up with each other and love each other." This word means:
The having a humble opinion of one's self.
A deep sense of one's (moral) littleness.
Modesty, humility, lowliness of mind.
Without this virtue, members in the body begin trying to be the "head" of the body, a role reserved only for Christ.

"Gentleness" - Ep 4:2 (see above). This word can be translated as gentleness, mildness, meekness. It is not a quality of weakness, but of power under control. Moses was a meek man (Num 12:3), but capable of great strength and boldness. Jesus was "meek and lowly in heart" (Mt 11:29), but we see where He drove the money changers out of the temple. Thus it is being gentle, even when there is the potential for being harsh, but gentleness is more conducive for maintaining unity.

"Long-suffering" - Ep 4:2 (see above "Patiently"). The idea here is one of patience, forbearance, longsuffering, slowness in avenging wrongs. When the body consists of members who are not perfect, and often sin against each other, maintaining unity is not possible unless they are willing to endure each other's imperfections.

"Put up with one another in love" - Ep 4:2 (see above). Similar to longsuffering, "bearing" means to sustain, to bear, to endure. What makes such "longsuffering" and "forbearance" possible is another virtue: "love". As Paul wrote in his chapter on love: "love suffers long...is not provoked" - 1 Co 13:4-5 "Love is kind and patient, never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude. Love isn't selfish or quick tempered. It doesn't keep a record of wrongs that others do.". Indeed, the virtue of love is the "tie" that binds all these virtues together - Co 3:12-14 "Put up with each other, and forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you. Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together."

"Endeavor" - Ep 4:3 "Try your best to let God's Spirit keep your hearts united. Do this by living at peace." Displaying these virtues does not come naturally nor easy, nor does maintaining unity. Thus the need for much effort, as Paul uses a word which means "to exert one's self, endeavor, give diligence" -- Only by giving diligence to display ALL these virtues, can we hope to "keep (maintain) the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" - Ep 4:3

To the church at Philippi, Paul directed them to "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit" - Ph 2:3. It is necessary to point out those attitudes we should NOT have! For possessing these attitudes will destroy unity. Both involve a "self-centered" attitude rather than a "Christ-centered" attitude. Therefore, it is required that we rid ourselves of:
The desire for exalting self ("selfish ambition")
The improper estimation of self ("conceit")

In place of these, we should substitute "in lowliness of mind" - Ph 2:3. In other words, humility as in Ep 4:2. This will effectively replace the problem of "conceit". Humility should be easy to maintain if we remember our own faults and "let each esteem others better than himself" - Ph 2:3. This should be easy for us to do for we are aware of our own defects, but we do not have the same clear view of the defects of others. We can only see their outward conduct; in our own case, we can look within. We see our own hearts, with all its faults; we cannot so look into the hearts of others. In writing to the brethren at Rome, Paul exhorted them to outdo one another in this regard - "in honor giving preference to one another" - Ro 12:10b. "look out...for the interest of others" - Ph 2:4. This attitude eliminates the problem of "selfish ambition". It is the attitude of maturity, and was the attitude of Christ! - Ro 15:1-3 "If our faith is strong, we should be patient with the Lord's followers whose faith is weak. We should try to please them instead of ourselves. We should think of their good and try to help them by doing what pleases them. Even Christ did not try to please himself. But as the Scriptures say, "The people who insulted you also insulted me."’ So it should be the attitude of every Christian! As strongly suggested by Ph 2:1-2, these qualities in verses 3-4 contribute to the unity that produces fullness of joy!

To the churches of Galatia, Paul cautioned against the improper use of our liberty in Christ. While it is true that we must stand fast in our liberty and not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage... - Ga 5:1 "Christ has set us free! This means we are really free. Now hold on to your freedom and don't ever become slaves of the Law again." ...we should use our liberty as an opportunity to serve one another in love - Ga 5:13-14 "My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love. All that the Law says can be summed up in the command to love others as much as you love yourself." Otherwise, abuse of our liberty gives the flesh opportunity to destroy one another! - Ga 5:15 "But if you keep attacking each other like wild animals, you had better watch out or you will destroy yourselves."

To the church at Rome, Paul wrote that we should pursue things that lead to peace and edification - Ro 14:19 "We should try to live at peace and help each other have a strong faith." That the strong should be willing to bear with the scruples of the weak - Ro 14:1 "Welcome all the Lord's followers, even those whose faith is weak. Don't criticize them for having beliefs that are different from yours.", 13 "We must stop judging others. We must also make up our minds not to upset anyone's faith."; 15:1-3 "If our faith is strong, we should be patient with the Lord's followers whose faith is weak. We should try to please them instead of ourselves. We should think of their good and try to help them by doing what pleases them. Even Christ did not try to please himself. But as the Scriptures say, "The people who insulted you also insulted me."’ That the weak in faith must be careful not to judge (condemn) those whom God has received! - Ro 14:3-4 "But you should not criticize others for eating or for not eating. After all, God welcomes everyone. What right do you have to criticize someone else's servants? Only their Lord can decide if they are doing right, and the Lord will make sure that they do right." -- Such attitudes are necessary, or we will not be able "with one mind and one mouth [to] glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!" - Ro 15:5-7.

Finally, to the church at Corinth Paul made it clear that knowledge can puff one up, but it is love that edifies ("builds up", in contrast to knowledge which "puffs up") - 1 Co 8:1 "In your letter you asked me about food offered to idols. All of us know something about this subject. But knowledge makes us proud of ourselves, while love makes us helpful to others." That we who have liberty in Christ should be careful that we don't use it to the destruction of our brethren who are weak - 1 Co 8:9-12 "Don't cause problems for someone with a weak conscience, just because you have the right to eat anything. You know all this, and so it doesn't bother you to eat in the temple of an idol. But suppose a person with a weak conscience sees you and decides to eat food that has been offered to idols. Then what you know has destroyed someone Christ died for. When you sin by hurting a follower with a weak conscience, you sin against Christ." That we should therefore be willing to forego our liberties if it can help keep a brother from stumbling - 1 Co 8:13 "So if I hurt one of the Lord's followers by what I eat, I will never eat meat as long as I live."; 10:31-11:1 "When you eat or drink or do anything else, always do it to honor God. Don't cause problems for Jews or Greeks or anyone else who belongs to God's church. I always try to please others instead of myself, in the hope that many of them will be saved. You must follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ."

From personal experience, I can attest that where members display these attitudes in addition to their devotion to "the apostles' doctrine"......there will be a congregation of Christians in which love and unity will prevail. That's not to say there will always be perfect understanding and agreement on every subject. When people from every conceivable background come to Christ, we should expect some differences. When there will always be brethren at various levels of spiritual growth, we can expect some challenges. But if we can agree that the teaching of Christ as expounded in "the apostles' doctrine" is our standard of authority in religious matters and inculcate the Christian attitudes described in this lesson into the heart of every member then we shall be able to "maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ep 4:3) as we all continue to "grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ" (2 Pe 3:18), to the glory of God!

God Bless,
Jim Newsted
Shamrock, Tx
The town that turns green for a week every year

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