4 April 2004
Sermon / tape 238a

Walking in Unity:  Part 5

“Guard the Unity (continued)”
Ephesians 4:3-6

Introduction 
Ephesians 4:1-5  As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 

I want you to imagine the Lord Jesus Christ Himself showing up at your house in person tonight with a list of several things He wants you to do.  You read down through the list, and you notice one item in the list where He was clearly pressing hard on the paper with His pencil, and in big, bold letters wrote, “Make sure you really work hard to do this one!”  In verse 3 of Ephesians 4, God issues a very strong command.
In the Greek language, the first word in the verse is spoudazo (spouda,zw); it appears in an imperative sense.  The NIV translates that word with the phrase make every effort.  It is a very strong word.  It carries the idea of urgency and haste; it even has a sense of crisis in it.  In addition, it calls for hard work.

Ephesians 4:3  Making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

The word keep means to guard or preserve.  The unity can never be destroyed; yet, we are called to work hard and labor diligently to guard it and maintain it.  It is a permanent unity.  It is an indestructible unity.  But, in some ways, it is a fragile unity; it needs to be diligently guarded.  
There are hundreds and hundreds of commands in the NT.  However, it is only here (and in four other places) that we are commanded to do something with this word attached to the command: “make every effort to do this.”  
Ephesians 4:3 is one of those verses that should cause us to really sit up and take notice and snap out of whatever kind of spiritual lethargy we might be in.  Some people are surprised to see this word in the Bible at all.  The presence of the word spoudazo in the New Testament completely refutes the error of quietism – the whole “let go and let God” mentality.  People like Bob George and Le Lafabre are constantly teaching that the key to the Christian life is to stop striving, stop working, stop laboring, stop putting forth effort, etc.  They say all that is operating in the flesh.  We are supposed to just relax and let God do it all.  We have developed such an emphasis on human weakness and our inability to do anything profitable that many Christians seem to be blind to the great emphasis in Scripture on human responsibility.  You never see God disparaging effort and hard work in the Christian life anywhere in Scripture.  It is always commanded – never condemned.  
Anytime you come to a point of thinking grace means that we are not to strive to obey God, you have twisted the concept of grace to mean the opposite of what it really is.  Grace doesn’t free us from obeying God.  It enables us to obey God.  But the obedience won’t happen apart from our diligent efforts.
One area where we are specifically commanded to put forth that kind of diligent effort is in the area of guarding our unity.  If there is an area of Church life where we are to work hard, and really put forth effort, and really labor and strive, it is in the effort to guard our unity and see to it that it is protected at all costs.
The sermon this morning is really very simple – I have two points: 
•	Why is guarding our unity so important?
•	How is it done?

Ephesians 4 is all about walking through life in a manner worthy of your calling.  One of the ways we do that is by keeping the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

The Importance of Guarding Our Unity
If this is one of only 5 times in the Bible where God tells us to make every effort to do something, you should know that keeping or guarding our unity is very important.  Why?  Well, we saw one reason last week.  God’s final purpose in the creation is to bring all things under one head, even the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:10).  God’s plan is for a final perfect unity for the whole cosmos as everything in creation works in perfect harmony functioning as a single unit in glorifying Jesus Christ.  The pilot program for that is the Church; therefore, God has built into the Church a profound, indestructible unity.  This unity is indestructible because it is based on theology.  Our unity comes from the fact that there is only one body of Christ, animated and directed by one Holy Spirit, and that every member has been called to the same, one hope, and that we all believe the one, single Gospel, and we were all baptized into the one Lord Jesus Christ.  Those theological realities form the basis for our unity.  That is not all, though that is not all.  Last time we didn’t even get to verse 6.

Ephesians 4: 4-6  There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to one hope when you were called- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

One God
There must be unity in the Church because there is only one God.  There has to only be one family because there is only one Father.  That gives us another reason why unity is so important:  when we fail to live out our unity, we radically undermine our claim to believe in one God.  With our mouths we claim there is only one God, but we deny it with our actions when we fail to guard the unity in the Church.  If there is only one God, then there is only one set of attributes that describe Him.  Those are the character qualities we all strive for; thus, we are all striving for exactly the same thing.  
If there is only one God, then there is only one will of God, right?  There is only one plan for His one Church.  Therefore, as we all seek His will, we are all seeking the same thing.  The closer we get to discovering His will, the closer we get to all working toward one, single objective.  That is why you don’t hear me standing up here trying to cast a vision for Creekside church.  In my church planting training, they told me over and over – “You must cast a vision.  You have to set goals and set a direction and constantly remind the people of that.”  They say if you don’t do that, no one in your organization knows what you are trying to accomplish and they aren’t energized to accomplish it.  That is true in the business world.  That is why corporations spend millions of dollars to develop strategic planners and visionaries.  But at Creekside, we have never done that.  Whenever anyone asks me what my vision for the church is, I always have said the same thing, “My vision for the church is Ephesians 4.”  I don’t have to cast a vision because Jesus already cast His own vision.
One of the most beautiful illustrations of that happened last Sunday night at the prayer meeting.  I asked everyone, “How would you describe the perfect church?”  I thought I would jot down some things and then we would pray for those things for Creekside.  What would be your guess as to how that went?  Do you think we were arguing and debating and disagreeing the whole time?  Do you think we were racking our brains, struggling to think of some marks of a good church?  No, everyone was firing ideas off faster than I could right them down:
•	a God-focused church
•	humble people
•	generous people
•	devoted to prayer
•	devoted to God’s Word
•	marked by love
•	genuine, celebrative worship
•	reverent awe in worship
•	passion for the name of God

Nobody argued, nobody debated, nobody hesitated – everyone agreed.  One person came a little late and immediately thought of all the same things we had already mentioned.  When we got done with the list my first thought was, “These people know what our goal is!”  The church planting gurus say if you go into most churches and randomly walk up to someone and ask what the goal of the church is or the vision for the church, they won’t know.  I don’t know about that.  They may not know the pastor’s hopes and dreams.  But God’s people know God’s will.  Since there is only one God, there is only one God’s will; hence, we are all working toward the same thing.

6 one God and Father of all 

That part of the verse is talking about all in the Church – not all human beings.  Paul is pointing out the basis for the unity in the Church – so obviously these things don’t apply to people outside the Church.  God is not the Father of unbelievers.

John 1:11-12  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

Galatians 3:26  You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus

This is a family – a home; we are the children in the home.  God is the Head of the home.  He is a perfect spiritual leader; He is leading and directing this family exactly where He wants it to go.  We all bear His name.  No matter how many kids Tracy and I have, they are all Fergusons, right?  I’m their father; they all bear my name.  God is our Father.  We all bear His name; we are all Christians.  Not only that, but we all carry His genes.   I won’t say “chips off the old block” because I wouldn’t refer to God as an old block but we are all His offspring, which means we carry His characteristics within our very makeup.  You can tell by looking at the way we act that we are brothers and sisters.
who is over (epi / evpi) all

That part of the verse points to God’s transcendence.  God is everywhere present; however, He is also everywhere distinct from the creation.  He is above and beyond matter.  This is where the pantheists go astray.  Pantheism confuses the creation with the Creator.  They think the creation is God.  Some of you may have seen Tommy Tenny’s book “The God Chasers.”  Tragically, that book is a best-seller in Christian bookstores even though among Tenny’s many errors is the fact that he espouses pure pantheism.  
On page 38, he says: "[God] is that 'particle' in the atomic nucleus ... God is … the composite of everything, both the glue that holds the pieces of the universe together and the pieces themselves!"  God is not a particle or a piece or glue.  He is separate from and distinct from creation.  God sits above the creation and is not part of it or subject to it in any way.  
The specific focus here is the Church.  God reigns sovereign over the Church.  Nothing that happens in the Church or to the Church can change His nature or alter His plan in any way.

and through (dia / dia.) all 

Most commentators interpret this part to mean “God works though the agency of all people (or all things).”  I looked at about 30 commentaries and they all agreed on that interpretation.  The problem is that, in order to get that interpretation, you really have to add a lot to the verse.  There is nothing in the text about working or doing or accomplishing.  It just says God is through all.  If we supply the word works in the sentence, then we are supplying the main point of the sentence.  Even though all the scholars seem to be in agreement, I have a real problem with the main point of the verse being something that I pulled out of thin air.  I don’t think that fits the context very well anyway.  The other two parts of the verse are statements about God’s nature, not His activity.  
I did finally find one scholarly commentary (Meyer) the other day that had the same concerns I have about that interpretation (although he didn’t really offer an alternative).  This is an example of the value of BibleWorks software.  If you do a search for this phrase through all, you find something very interesting.  This phrase appears 13 times in the New Testament.  It always means continually or always or forever (with only one possible exception).  In the Greek Old Testament (the LXX), that phrase appears over 100 times in the sense of constantly, or forever or always.  Therefore, unless through all means something different here than it means everywhere else in the Bible, then this is a statement about the eternality of God.  
You could translate it: “God is throughout the life of the Church.”   That would fit the context of the verse – three parallel statements about God’s nature.  However, keep in mind these statements are in relationship to the Church.  God is the Alpha and Omega – the beginning and the end of all we do in the Church.

The Church 
•	started in the mind of God before the creation of the world
•	it came into existence when He brought it into existence
•	it is doing what He designed it to do
•	it will become what He intends it to become

Isaiah 26 promises that someday God will do great and wonderful things through the people and the people will say to God, “All that we have accomplished you have done for us” (Isaiah 26:12).  That is what we will say.  God was the beginning and end of everything we did.

and in (en /  evn) all 
This has to do with God’s omnipresence.  He is distinct from the creation.  He is not in a tree in the sense that the tree is somehow part of God.  However, wherever you go in the creation, God is there – and not just part of God – all of God.  That is true in a much more profound way in the Church.  We have seen over and over in Ephesians that the presence of God to bless and to reveal Himself is in the Church more than anywhere else.  God is present in the Church.  He is present in every local church.  He is present in everything He does through every local church.  Right at the heart of everything all the various churches are doing is God – one God.  Therefore, if there is only one God and He is at the center of everything in the Church, then the Church is one.

The Reason for Unity in the Church
We have unity because God is supreme over all the Church.  He exists continuously throughout all the existence of the Church (His existence envelops the Church); He is there in everything the Church is doing.  God totally permeates the existence of the Church.  He is the source of all we do (that is good).  He is the sovereign over all we do.  He authors, perfects and finishes all that the Church does.  He envelops the Church in all she does and all she is from start to finish – both from the perspective of ruling from above and energizing from within.  God unifies us in His Presence, His Persistence and His Preeminence.  There could never be another God because there would be no place for Him to exist and there would be nothing for Him to do.  God owns all sovereignty and supremacy and glory and honor and dominion and power – there is none left for any other god.  Thus, Paul goes to the height of heaven to show us the basis of our unity.  
The unity of the Church is bound up in the nature of God.  Why should you break your back to guard and protect the unity of the Church?  Because failure to do so is a denial of the very nature of God.  
That is why I said, “When we fail to live out our unity, we radically undermine our claim to believe in one God.”  If the world sees us fighting and gossiping and fighting for prominence against one another and teaching wildly divergent doctrines, they aren’t going to be too impressed with our one God.  That is part of the reason why Paul emphasizes the nature of God so much in Ephesians.  Jesus prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one and that prayer was answered.  The basis of Church unity is Trinity Unity.

The Trinity
The concept of unity through distinctive, different roles can be illustrated a lot of different ways.  I could talk to you about a football team.  Everything the team does is designed to get the ball into their end zone; that is the one and only goal of the team.  Yet the individual roles are so different.  The quarterback’s role is just to throw or hand off the ball.  The offensive lineman’s role is really interesting because they never move toward the end zone at all.  All they ever do is back up (trying to hold off the rush as long as possible).  The role of the defense is to get the ball back so the offense can score.  The goal of the team is to advance the ball; yet most of the team never touches the ball.  However, if everyone tried to be a running back or receiver, the team would be guaranteed to lose.  A unified football team is one where everyone is doing different things – but all toward one goal.  
Another way to illustrate it is by pointing to the human body, as we did last week.  All the parts of the body do different things in order to enable the whole body to achieve one thing.  
Unity through distinct roles can be illustrated in a machine.  In a clock, each gear only has one job – just keep turning around and around.  But all the parts together coordinate their different roles to achieve the one purpose of keeping time.  
But of all the wonderful illustrations of this principle, the greatest of all is the Trinity.  The word trinity is not a biblical word.  It is just a term we use to describe a specific set of 5 truths that are revealed over and over in Scripture.  Those 5 truths are very easy to understand:

•	The Father is God
•	Jesus is God
•	The Holy Spirit is God
•	There is only one God
•	The Father, Son and Spirit are distinct from one another

There are not three gods; that is tritheism.  There is not one God who is sometimes the Father, other times the Son, and other times the Spirit.  The Father, Son and Spirit all three exist simultaneously and eternally.  They are distinct from one another; that is why we say there are three persons.  
Jesus prays to the Father.  The Father loves the Son.  The Father sends the Spirit.  There is a subject-object distinction between the Father, Son and Spirit.  There is no verse in the Bible that lists out those 5 truths in the form I gave them to you; that is just a summary.  Nevertheless, all five are taught in Scripture:

1.	The Father is called God in Ephesians 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

2.	Jesus is called God in the following verses:

Titus 2:13  we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

2 Peter 1:1  Peter addresses those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours

Romans  9:5  From the Jews is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. 

Even God the Father refers to the Son as “God.”

Hebrews 1:8  But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, 
When the Father speaks to the Son He says, “Your throne O God…”

3.	The Spirit is God
Blaspheme is a sin against God.  There is no question that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.

Acts 5:3-4  Then Peter said, "Ananias… you have lied to the Holy Spirit … You have not lied to men but to God." 

Luke 12:10  everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 

4.	There is only one God.
We don’t have to look far to prove that.  That is exactly what the text we are studying today says.    You really can’t get much clearer than this:  Ephesians 4:6  There is one God.

5.	The Father, Son and Spirit are distinct.  
If you have any question about that, just read John 16 and 17 and ask yourself, “When Jesus talks about being loved by the Father, going to the Father, sending the Holy Spirit, and prays to the Father, then who is loving whom?  Who is sending Whom?  Who is going to whom?  Who is praying to whom?”

They are three, distinct persons existing simultaneously and eternally.  That is the doctrine of the Trinity.  That doctrine permeates the very fabric of the book of Ephesians.  It is the assumption behind almost everything Paul says.

The Trinity in Ephesians
Ephesians 1:3  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 

A spiritual blessing is a blessing from the Holy Spirit.  That verse refers to all three persons.

Ephesians 1:13-14  Having believed, you were marked in (Christ) with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession

You were marked in the Son with the seal of the Holy Spirit as the possession of the Father.

Ephesians 1:17  I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation

Again, there is the whole Trinity in one verse.  It happens again:

Ephesians 2:18  Through (Christ) we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 

Ephesians 2:22  In (Christ Jesus) you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. 

Ephesians 3:4-5  you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which … has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles 

Ephesians 3:14-17  I kneel before the Father, … I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 

All those verses in just the first 3 chapters – 66 verses.  Additionally, so far in chapter 4, the focus has been on the Trinity the whole time – one Lord, one Spirit, one Father.  It underlies everything.
Paul is constantly referring to the Trinity in Ephesians because Ephesians is a book about unity in the Church.  Not only is the Trinity the greatest illustration of unity but it is the basis of our unity.  Let me ask you, “What part of the Church – the true Church – is not completely founded upon, generated by, energized by, focused on and completed by one of the members of the Trinity?”  Whether it be:

•	election by the Father
•	hope of resurrection in the Son
•	enlightenment by the Holy Spirit
•	faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
•	baptism into Christ
•	the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit
•	worship of God the Father
•	intercession by the Holy Spirit
•	mediation by the Son
•	justification by the Father
•	gifting by the Holy Spirit
•	redemption by the Son
•	prayer to the Father

…we preach a gospel of Jesus revealed through the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father.  Everything about us from beginning to end is centered on one of the members of the Trinity.  If the Trinity is a perfect unity – perfectly unified in one purpose and one will and one plan with just one God – then everything the Church does is bringing us to greater unity.  If I do anything to mar or obscure that unity or if I fail to diligently guard and protect that unity, then I am guilty of working in direct opposition to the nature of God.

Missions
This is why missions are so important and urgent.  If there are many different God’s and any Lord will do and lots of different baptisms and lots of valid faiths, then there is no need for missions.  Just let people believe whatever they want and they will go to heaven.  However, if what God is saying here is true – there is only one true God and only one way to that God and only one true faith – then  it is desperately important that we take that faith to the nations.  It is desperately important that we send missionaries to the world with the message that there is one God and Father of all.  It is that very message that is the reason why our message is rejected by most people in the world.  
Human religion loves the statement in the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, iv, 11, "However man may approach me, even so do I accept them; for, on all sides, whatever path they may choose is mine."  That is the fantasy of the world:  There is no error and everything is truth;  all paths lead to God.  Others don’t mind so much that we believe that salvation is in Jesus Christ.  
What they can’t stand is the idea that salvation is in Jesus Christ alone.  It is the part of Jesus’ teaching that even many people who claim to follow Jesus reject.  The world claims to be favorable to the concept of unity but they are hostile against the concept of one God and one Lord and one faith.  That is always the biggest complaint the world has against us.  If you question that, look back up at verse 1 and remind yourself from where Paul is writing this letter.  He is writing from prison where he is incarcerated because of this very message about unity.

The Reason for Unity in the Church – again
Hence, the basis of our unity is rooted in the doctrines of the nature of God Himself.  That is why I told you last week that I believe in the unity of the Church just as much as I believe Jesus Christ is Lord.  
We have a unity that is indestructible and eternal because it is based on eternal truths.  But if all that is true, how do we explain the areas of disunity in the Church?  The reason there are problems of disunity in the Church is that, even though God has provided this profound unity and even though it can never be destroyed, it can be damaged, hidden, marred, obscured and ignored.  It is the reason Paul wrote verse 3.

How To Guard Church Unity
3 Making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

How do we protect it?  How do we guard the unity of the Spirit?  One thing I can tell you is that the most commonly tried tactics don’t work.  Human wisdom can never generate spiritual unity.

Ecuminicism – A Wrong Approach
More and more people today seem to think the way to protect the unity of the church is by avoiding any discussion of doctrine.  Just don’t ever talk about anything that is controversial, and the church will be unified, because all debate will be eliminated.  However, that is a phony unity.  For example, if you have a football team, and half your team is going for the south end zone and the other half is going for the north end zone, you don’t reach team unity by ignoring that fact at half time.  (“We don’t want any conflict; we want team unity so we just won’t bring up the whole direction controversy.  Some of us hold the south-end-zone view, others have the north-end-zone view; some are A-end-zone, etc. etc.   We don’t want any arguing and fighting so we will just be tolerant of those who are running the opposite way.”)
No team would have that attitude at a meaningless football game; yet they think that way in the church, things of eternal importance are being done!  How can that be?  Evidently, many people think doctrine is little more than meaningless philosophical speculation.  They seem to think doctrine is just a matter of opinion or preference or taste.  It is foolish to argue over what tastes better – an apple or an orange.  Or which is a better color – blue or red.  Those kinds of things are just opinion and preference.
The effect of Postmodernism has been to put doctrines about God in that category – which has seriously affected the Church.  That is why people are so content to never debate theology.  They think it really doesn’t matter what you believe i.e. you have your preferences; I have mine.  We need to realize that doctrines are not opinions.  Doctrines are truth claims upon which we base our eternal destiny.  Nothing is more important than having correct doctrine.  However, the only way to be unified in our doctrine is to discuss it, debate it, study it, critique it and hammer it out until we find the truth.  Paul didn’t say, “Make every effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of silence.”   If we refuse to debate doctrine, we proliferate our disunity because it can never be resolved.  Therefore, ecumenism doesn’t work.

Separatism – Another Wrong Approach
Another thing Paul didn’t say was, “Preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of uniformity.”  Some churches develop a separatist mentality and say, “You are welcome into our club only if you adhere to all the codes.  We have one acceptable music style, one acceptable worship style, and one set of rules.  Either follow all our codes of conduct, preferences and traditions or find another church.”  In a church like that, everyone is exactly the same; therefore, it seems like real unity.  Nevertheless, that is not unity.  All that approach does is take the disunity and shove it outside the doors of your building.  Yet you still have disunity in the body of Christ.  Again, in the name of generating unity, they do nothing but proliferate more disunity.  
That kind of separatist mentality is what has resulted in the countless denominations we have today.  I think there is some value to denominations – up to a point.  It is nice to know if you are walking in to a Pentecostal church or an Episcopalian church.  Nonetheless, the divisions have gotten way out of hand.  You’ve heard of the denomination The Church of Christ.  Did you know there is an offshoot of that called The Church of Christ in Christian Union?  It is ironical that so often when someone splits off and creates a faction, he or she comes up with a name that has something about unity.  (“We split off from them.  We are now The Church of Christian Union.”)  Then there is another offshoot from that denomination called The Church of Christ no Sunday School.  They just couldn’t coexist with people who call themselves Christians and yet have Sunday School and who don’t use a single cup for communion; hence, they started their own denomination.  Denominations form as offshoots of offshoots of offshoots until you get a denomination like The House of God Which is the Church of the Living God the Pillar and Ground of the Truth Without Controversy Inc. (For your information, that is a real denomination!)  In addition, even though they are without controversy, there was an offshoot of that denomination that is called The House of God Which is the Church of the Living God the Pillar and Ground of the Truth Without Controversy Inc. The Keith Dominion.  Not to be outdone by them are the folks in The House of God, Holy Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, the House of Prayer for all People denomination.
However, if you want something that’s not so mainstream, you could check out the following denominations:  The Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Presbyterian Baptists, The Fire Baptized Holiness Church, The Duck-River (And Kindred) Association of Baptists, or The Triumph of the Church and the Kingdom of God in Christ Church.  Or if you just want something simple, how about The Schwenkfelder Church?  It really is getting ridiculous out there!  
We are so quick to divide over the smallest things.  A woman called me the other day to ask about our church.  She has listened to Food For Your Soul, loved the preaching and was all excited about coming.  In the end, however, she decided she can’t come here because when we baptize we say, “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”  She said she believes in the Trinity and is not a Oneness Pentecostal but, in her experience, she has had really good luck with the name of Jesus Christ only at baptism.  
It’s incredible to me the kinds of things over which people will divide their fellowship.  If Jesus’ earthly ministry were today, couldn’t you just hear the debates between those who were healed?
“The proper way to be healed of blindness is for Jesus to spit in the dirt and put that on your eyes!” 
“No!  I know from experience that He heals blindness with a word – without touching you.” 
“That’s the worst heresy I’ve ever heard!”
(Welcome to the First United Jordan River (and Kindred) Church of the Saliva Muddite Brethren Without Controversy.)
There are some issues that are serious enough over which to divide fellowship.  Nevertheless, to only fellowship with people who are in lock step agreement with every detail of both faith and tradition seems to bring unity in your little group but really results in ridiculous disunity in the Church as a whole.  You don’t achieve unity through sticking your head in the sand and pretending there are no differences.  On the other hand, you don’t achieve unity through separating from everyone who refuses to think and act exactly like your group.  Both those approaches just proliferate disunity.  Well, then, how do you maintain unity?  Not just a contrived, institutional ecumenical charade of external unity but true Church unity?  

The Right Approach
We don’t have to invent our own methods for keeping Church unity.  God told us exactly how it’s done right in this verse:  Keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  The thing that is going to bond us to one another – the glue that holds together our unity – is peace.

Ephesians 2:14-18  For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.  He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 

Peace is when hostility is put to death.  The world’s idea of peace is this:  Peace is when the killing subsides a little or there is a cease fire.  However, God’s idea of peace is when there is genuine love and the complete absence of hostility.  That kind of peace in the Church was so important that Jesus died to achieve it.  (Verse 16 says our hostility was put to death on the cross.)  The way we guard the unity of the Spirit – the way we protect it and preserve it and keep it from being diminished or obscured or ignored – is through the peace with one another.  Yet, that comes only when we put in place the virtues of verse 2 – humility, meekness, patience and love.  That is why Paul started the way he did.  The chapter is about unity.  If we are going to have unity, we must have peace.  If we are going to have peace, we must have humility, meekness, patience and love.  Is there any hostility in your heart toward anyone in the church?  Is it acceptable for you to just avoid that person?  Is it acceptable to ignore that person – not talk to that person and allow the hostility to just fester in your heart?  I want us all to be very honest with ourselves for a moment.  Is there anyone in the Church with whom you are not at peace?  Can you say with a clear conscience that you are doing everything you can – laboring hard, earnestly, urgently, with a sense of haste – working hard to protect, at all costs, the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace?

Romans 12:18  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Benediction: Joshua 1:7-9  

Be strong and very courageous.  Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.  Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.  Then you will be prosperous and successful.

           

Review Question:

How is Church unity kept?

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