On the night before Jesus was crucified, during the Last Passover Supper; he prayer for unity for all his disciples and believers. When you embrace Christian unity you embrace the heart of Christ for all his people. The practice of spiritual maturity according to the divine pattern of Christ in the New Testament is also the solution to practicing Christian unity; not a system of select commands, examples, inferences and preferred interpretations that we can never completely agree upon. The day of unity will never arrive so long as the unspiritual mind prevails, choking the Christian brotherhood with sectarian arguments and prideful judgments against any who reasonably disagree. However, the spiritual mind of Christ overcomes the fleshly nature that breeds unspiritual interest in controversies over the Biblical pattern. What then can Christians do to help all who sincerely call upon the name of the Lord to realize more of the unity that Jesus himself prayed for? First, Christians must seek the spiritual mind of Christ. Christ’s mind would enable mature and proper judgments — not infallible — regarding all matters of spiritual things expressed in spiritual words. Whatever differences existed between various groups, the mind of Christ would help them to approach one another with the common goal of unity in Christ. Second, Christians must build upon the one foundation of Jesus Christ with care to edify and not to destroy. Christ’s mind is marked by spiritual maturity. Those with Christ’s mind are also builders of spiritual maturity and unity, the precious metals. But the reality is that others, who are fleshly in mind and divisive in their pride, build with weaker and less precious materials. God will judge the quality of each one’s work at judgment; but the work, for better or worse, remains a part of the living and growing temple, the church. God did give a perfect plan and a perfect pattern, but perfection is not the edifice built by Christians in this age. Spiritually minded Christians build model churches, but none build perfect churches. As I applaud Christians for avoiding sectarian judgments; I commend churches for guarding against false doctrines. We should restore the basic facts and principles of the apostolic church, and instill diligence in practice of the sound doctrine of Jesus Christ. I do believe that in spite of our disagreements that most believers are sincere and good in heart, and do love the Lord and His church. The church in every age has a great responsibility to exercise the caution of pure doctrine as it promotes the spread of the gospel, its spiritual blessings and freedoms. But our responsibility never elevates us to judge that we are the only Christians; for this sectarian attitude frustrates the call of our Lord to be one just as he prayed. In Jesus’ prayer, the very standard and ideal of unity for his disciples is the personal and perfect relationship that he had with his Father. Therefore, this prayer expresses the church’s pilgrimage; and we must persevere in this quest with a stewardship arising from a bond of peace and spiritual maturity. Who are we? We are the body of Christ, but we do not have exclusive rights to the name of Christ. We bear a common name, Christian, which honors our Lord and promotes the unity for which he prayed. We are Christians, but we are not the only Christians. We do not wear this name in the spirit of sectarian ownership, for the name Christian is an honor to wear and we are thankful that we belong to Christ. As Christians we seek God’s eternal thought and plan for His creation. We seek to imitate Christ, to grow in Christ’s mind and to transform into Christ’s image, the image of God. Christ is God’s eternal thought for us. What a great pattern and destiny we have! [NOTE: “Christian Unity” is comprised of selections from my essay, “Pilgrimage to Christian Unity,” copyright © by D. Bryan Buttram, November 2006, with substantial revision in June 2007. Please find the complete essay here: Essay on Christian Unity. I exhort you to be noble-minded and search the scriptures. See Acts 17:11. Some of the Biblical basis for the thoughts in these excerpts may be read in John 17, 1 Corinthians 1-3, and Ephesians 4.
Buttram, Bryan. “Christian Unity Excerpt.” WordPress.com: 2007/06/20.
6 Comments
June 21, 2007 at Thursday, June 21, 2007
Bryan,
Very good, brother. Amen! I especially like the call to building with precious metals. This keeps the responsibility on all of us, so that even when we disagree we do it with great care to hold the body together. Most of our squabbles are about scrupples confused as doctrines anyway, and Paul’s instruction is that those who are liberated show no contempt for those who aren’t and that those who are more restrictive avoid at all costs judging another Man’s servant. It’s hard isn’t it? We need much grace to actually live with each other in this manner.
Ben Overby
June 21, 2007 at Thursday, June 21, 2007
Ben, thank you for your encouraging comment. “Our squabbles are about scrupples” — what a great way to express what vexes so many churches. Also you are right about our need for grace for the practice of unity. Grace was the enabling power and wisdom of Paul’s ministry, and so it should be of all church ministry. Finally, I noticed that our congregation’s webpage webmaster has not yet posted the paper I made reference to. When it is posted I will post the introductory paragraph of the paper on my blog. Thanks for your patience.
July 11, 2007 at Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Samuel Clear, a 28 year old from Australia, is attracting the attention of Christians worldwide, as he independently walks an 18 month pilgrimage across the planet inviting people to join him in praying for the unity of all Christians. Currently eight months into his journey and in South America, Sam has also faced much opposition; having been racially abused, stalked by a puma and held up at gunpoint.
Naming the pilgrimage, Walk4One, Sam left Australia on December 14, 2006 to begin his 29,000km, 564 day, worldwide journey, which includes 18,000kms traveled on foot. From Cape Branco the eastern most point of Brazil, Sam is travelling through South America, Central America and North America, across Russia, and down through Europe to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The unique quest will culminate in Sydney in July 2008 for the start of World Youth Day.
To read about Sam’s mission, see http://www.ymt.com.au/walk4one
July 12, 2007 at Thursday, July 12, 2007
David, thank you for the link, for I did not know about Sam’s pilgrimage. May God bless Sam and all who join their hearts in praying for Christian unity, imitating and pleasing Christ who also prayed for unity so that the world might believe. I plan to look at Sam’s site more. Whether at 4:01 or at another time A.M. or P.M., may God lead us to also see the simplicity of a daily discipline of expressing our trust in God through a pray for unity. If I may, I would like to share a source of additional reading on unity. The publisher, http://www.seedsowers.com has three (perhaps more) books on unity.
October 20, 2009 at Tuesday, October 20, 2009
I just read an article on CNN.com regarding unity in the Catholic Church without cultural uniformity (i.e., as Anglican congregations join while retaining their rites). I then wrote a post about the relationship of unity and doctrinal uniformity. In general terms, does unity require uniformity?
October 26, 2009 at Monday, October 26, 2009
I could not find your post. Would you like to link it?