Discuss the real meaning of “love and unity” in today's society
In about 5-7 lines
Answers
Some time ago, a Kudzu cartoon showed a church league softball game where the fundamentalists call, “Strike one! Yer out!” Those from the more liberal churches laugh at the punch line: “Boy, they’re strict!”
Then in another Kudzu cartoon, the umpire yells, “Strike three!” Then, “Strike four!” And, “Strike five!” “What’s going on,” a teammate asks the Rev. Will B. Dunn. “Isn’t anyone going to enforce the rules?” The Reverend says nothing. Then in the last frame of the cartoon, the ump bellows, “Strike 96!” Rev. Will exclaims, “I love playing the Unitarians!”
As those cartoons humorously point out, some Christians are so narrow-minded and strict that they would rewrite the rules so that you’re out after one strike rather than three. For others, who are not really Christians at all, anything goes. But those cartoons raise a more serious matter: How narrowly or widely should Christians draw the lines of fellowship? Should we be so strict that if you don’t believe exactly as we do, we won’t associate with you? Or should we allow four strikes or five—or 96?
Each year there are “unity services” held in Flagstaff in an attempt to bring many of the churches together. I’m usually not enthusiastic about these services and sometimes I’ve been asked why I don’t promote them. “After all,” the argument goes, “Jesus didn’t say that the world will know that we are Christians by our doctrinal agreement, but by our love and unity. So shouldn’t we set aside our differences and come together with other churches to show our unity?” Since this is an important issue, we need to think biblically about the matter of true Christian unity. How broadly or narrowly should we draw the lines of Christian fellowship?
It has been estimated that in the early 1980’s, there were between 21,000-23,000 Protestant denominations in the world. A more recent estimate puts the number at over 41,000. The Roman Catholic Church often uses this as an argument against Protestants, since there is only one Catholic Church worldwide. There are also about 60 different Orthodox Churches, stemming from the Great Schism of 1054. Should we all just set aside our differences and come together under one umbrella? If so, which (or whose) umbrella should that be? What is the essence of true Christian unity?
First, we should remember that the Lord Jesus, in His prayer just before He went to the cross, emphasized unity among His followers. In John 17:20-23, He prayed,
“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”
Evidently, the unity for which Jesus prayed was not just an invisible, spiritual unity, but also a unity that the world can see. This visible unity among believers will make the world know that Jesus was sent to earth by the Father and that believers are the special objects of the Father’s love. So this is an important subject for us to think about clearly. The testimony of Christ is at stake!
As we’ve seen, from Romans 14:1 through 15:13, Paul addresses the potentially divisive issue of how the stronger and weaker believers in Rome should learn to get along and build up one another. The stronger believers were mostly Gentiles who understood that in Christ, we have been freed from observing the Mosaic Law. They did not have scruples regarding kosher meat or Sabbath laws. But the weaker believers (mostly Jewish Christians) could not shake off these things with a clear conscience. And so a potential split could have divided the church along racial lines.
But for Paul, it was crucial that there not be separate Gentile and Jewish churches. It is to God’s glory when “Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman” (Col. 3:11) could set aside their differences and all come together in Christ as their all in all. So in our text, Paul offers what we might call a “prayer-wish” or a God-ward wish that God would grant the strong and the weak in Rome to be of the same mind so that they might with one voice glorify God. He’s saying that…
True Christian unity comes from God, is based on Christ Jesus, and results in glory to God.