How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life for evermore.
Psalms 133:1-3 NIVUK
One church I worked in for several years really saddened me. Churches are full of human beings and led by human beings, so sooner or later we will be disappointed by their imperfections. But one church in particular did something that led me scratching my head with bewilderment.
They had a chance to support a brilliant new ministry. The brother of one of their members was the pastor of a fast-growing but very needy gypsy church. He asked the main church, which had a membership of several hundred, if they could help.
The main church agreed. But instead of sending a delegation to the gypsy church, they asked the gypsy church to send a delegation to them.
So they did. They sent their praise and worship team to the main church.
They arrived in traditionally gaudy gypsy clothes, took out their accordions, tambourines and violins and immediately got started on an upbeat, loud, enthusiastic but sadly very out of tune series of songs.
I loved it.
The main church sung slow country and western music. Which for a Pentecostal church in Romania seemed slightly unusual. These gypsies had brought colour and enthusiasm to the service. They might have been a sight for sore eyes and not so easy on the ears, but they were clearly singing sincerely, from the heart, even if it wasn't so tuneful.
The main church wasn't happy. They said that if the gypsy church wanted sponsorship then it had to be a clone of the main church.
And that was never going to work. A month later, the gypsy worship group returned and sang with the main church's band.
The results were not great. They were dressed in more dowdy clothes. These gypsies, who did not value education and had literacy issues, were attempting to sing old Romanian hymns country and western style from hymn books. The joy and enthusiasm had been sucked out of them. They were a little more in tune, but their songs came from their mouths, not their hearts.
It was no surprise at all that the relationship eventually broke down and support was cut.
But there was a very different church a few miles away. It was a small Evangelical church of around twenty members. It met in a converted house. Its members didn't have much - most were either pensioners, unemployed or students - but they had a massive heart.
A few of their members were involved in student ministry and discovered some Christians from the Democratic Republic of Congo in a dormitory. These Romanian Christians offered a hand of friendship to their Congolese brothers and invited them to their church.
The Congolese students agreed to come, but offered to show their Romanian hosts how they worshipped back home. The elders of the church, which is a very traditional Brethren church, told the students that it "wasn't what we're used to", but they would allow them to worship Congolese style after the main service was finished.
The service took place in typical Romanian style - with shirts, trousers, long skirts, headscarves and old hymns. But everyone stayed back out of curiosity to see what their African guests would do.
The Congolese students took African drums out from their seats and then started worship their way: harmonious, rhythmic and full of energy. And the Romanians loved it. All of them. They had never seen anything like it before and they really enjoyed it.
While I was training to be a missionary, I met a young Croatian lad. He was a really great guy. He came from a very Evangelical Pentecostal church that was in the middle of a church planting programme. They went to a village and set to work planting a church. Only, it wasn't going so well. The village, which was quite conservative in outlook, was not responding well to their Pentecostal ways of doing things.
The mother church held a meeting to discuss what was happening. The Gospel was the most important thing to them, above all other considerations. So they did something I sincerely doubt other churches would to. They planted a Baptist church there: a traditional Baptist church, with Baptist theology, Baptist hymnology and Baptist structure. And it worked. It was much more acceptable to the villagers.
Why am I telling you these stories?
Because unity is not just about theory. No, it's about mindset and practice. If we talk about unity within our own church and then look down on other believers then we are nothing but hypocrites.
In all my years growing up and as a missionary, not to mention travelling to the Philippines, I have ministered in Baptist, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Gypsy and Independent churches. I have seen all kinds of good things and all kinds of bad. It disappoints me deeply when I see the divisive, opinionated attitude of believers on all sides. We really do need to give ourselves a shake. Most of us live in countries where we are far from the majority and where our fellow citizens know nothing of the Gospel. From where do we find the time and energy to waste on arguing about irrelevant minutiae?
The words of institution of the Lord's Supper are read out religiously pretty much every time we break bread together, but we blithely skip over these verses:
So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and ill, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.
1 Corinthians 11:27-31 NIVUK
But what does it mean by the 'Body of Christ'? Does it just mean the bread?
No, I don't think so. You see, in verses 17-22, Paul is chastising the Corinthians for their poor attitude, not just towards the Lord's Supper, but towards each other. For example:
Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
1 Corinthians 11:22 NIVUK
Just one chapter further on, he says these words:
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:27 NIVUK
In other words, the 'Body of Christ' in Communion is not just the bread, it is also the people consuming the bread. It is the global group of believers from every denomination and colour and creed and language. It is everyone who truly names Christ in their heart as Lord. If we look down on any of them, we are treating them with contempt, we are failing to discern the Body of Christ and we are eating and drinking judgement on ourselves.
That is not how the Body of Christ is meant to be.
The Body of Christ is supposed to consist of different parts working together harmoniously towards the goal of making Christ known on earth and extending His Kingdom. How dare we dismember it by insisting that everyone looks like us, talks like us, thinks like us, sings like us or reads the same version of the Bible as us (1 Corinthians 12:12-31)! How dare we seek to chop off appendages whose theology is slightly different from ours! It's not our body we are damaging - it's the Body of Christ. We cannot say that we love Him and in the very next breath do battle with our brothers and sisters.
Yes, I know some of us have been deeply wounded over the years by wholly unnecessary skirmishes. And those wounds may take a long time to heal. However, we are not accountable before God for what other people do to us, but we are absolutely accountable before God for what we do to them. Our responsibility before God is to be peace-makers (Matthew 5:9). Our responsibility before God is to settle amicably any issues we have with our brothers and sisters (Matthew 5:23-26). Our responsibility is to forgive as we have been forgiven (Matthew 6:12, 14-17; Luke 6:36-37).
We are accountable to God for carrying out these responsibilities.
We do not have the excuse of 'but look what they did to me'. Their sins are their problem. Our sins are our problem. Unforgiveness is a sin. We cannot make ourselves guilty of it before God.
The unity of the Body of Christ depends on it.
But please don't misunderstand me. I am not talking about ecumenism here. Right at the start of this meditation we saw that David's psalm is about those who have a common direction, purpose and motivation. They were headed on a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship God. They were not headed to Mecca or the Ganges or Tibet or Rome or even Utah. As Christians, there are people with whom we cannot be united. These are people whose direction, purpose and motivation does not match ours.
And we have to be realistic: some of these will claim to be believers. But how we disagree is important. We do not make a big fuss. We do not slander them. We simply give them the right hand of fellowship and go our separate ways. There is nothing wrong with that.
In 2001 I had the privilege of spending three weeks in the Philippines on board the MV Doulos for a conference. The prayer meetings there were simply astonishing. Christians of every colour and hue and denomination, gathered single-mindedly with the goal of bringing Christ to a needy world. I have never been in prayer meetings like it since. It was a small piece of heaven:
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’
Revelation 7:9-10 NIVUK
Unity is not an option. The unity of the Body of Christ is not up for discussion. Unity is an imperative - a must. Without it the message of the Gospel will be lost in our neighbourhoods and communities, and that is way too high a price to pay just to get our way on minor, irrelevant, petty matters.
Unity, on the other hand, is an awesome thing. It is wellbeing. A unified church is a healthy church, and a healthy church promotes the mental health and wellbeing of its members. It is anointing. In a broken society such as ours a unified, but diverse and inclusive, church will display the Gospel as much as preach it and truly glorify God. It is also a blessing. It refreshes those who are sick of division and discrimination in our society and causes them to thrive in the driest, most hostile place.
So the next time divisive thoughts arise in your head, weigh them up against the sheer weight of blessings that unity brings and ask yourself it it's worth it. Very rarely will you say yes. More often than not, you will see that unity is way too precious to be put at risk.
And remember: if you have a problem with your fellow believer on earth, it's best to sort it out. Especially as you'll spend an eternity with them in Heaven.
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