Unity At All Costs, Pt. 2
Unity In Ministerial Gifts, Unity Amidst Diversity
Paul, in addressing the Corinthian church, expounded on the diverse gifts that were bestowed on individual members by the Holy Spirit. Every member and his gift were to be valued and exercised to the benefit of all members of the Body.
There is to be no preferential treatment, no SCHISM (DIVISION) and no exclusion of one in favour of another.
Unity Is Not To Be Conflated With Uniformity
This is far removed from the actual exercise of the gifts of the Spirit in the Church today. Today, believers in the pastor's inner circle many times are shown preference and favour above the others and are usually the ones that are permitted
to minister to the congregants while the others are restricted, censored or even ostracized. But Paul told the Thessalonian church:
It is by the EFFECTIVE WORKING of each member in their rightful ministry, exercising the divine gift Christ distributed to each that will bring about the UNITY OF THE FAITH, this being a Body that comprises mature and perfect believers,
the personification and expression of CHRIST HIMSELF.
A Body that will not be deceived by or adopt every new-fangled titillating doctrine that arises from the heart of foolish and artful men, but will 'test all things and hold fast to what is true' (1 Thess. 5:21). Unity of the faith will NOT
come about by a single shepherd wielding authority over all other believers with their God given gifts, censorship and by squelching and quenching the Spirit of God.
When Is Unity Unbiblical?
The bother who sins against another is to be cast out of the Church
Christ explicitly stated how a believer should be dealt with who sinned against another believer. It was to be treated seriously and dealt with, first on a personal level and then at the level of the church itself. Failure to comply
with the instruction and discipline of the church is to result in the believer no longer being treated as a believer but as an outcast and a pariah. This seldom, if ever, is practiced in the Church today. Discipline has given way to
ambivalence and 'tolerance' and 'non-judgmental' non-action in the name of 'love' and 'unity'. Unity that overlooks the mistreatment of a believer at the hands of another is a FALSE one that is not based on Biblical standards.
Sin In The Church
The Corinthian church had a member who was committing sexual immorality wit his own father's wife, a sin that was not addressed by the church, which instead celebrated this heinous sin (1 Cor. 5). Paul was aghast at their response, to which
he wrote a scathing letter, urging them to hand over this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit might be saved. He further went on to command them to not even associate with one called a believer who was
practicing sin.
In today's church however, no sin among believers is ever called out or addressed or warned against; a lackadaisical, apathetic approach chosen instead, thus establishing a FALSE UNITY that goes against the principles laid down in Scripture. Paul
makes it clear that a 'little LEAVEN leavens the whole lump' and the only way to deal with sin would be to expunge and eradicate it entirely and not to coddle it or refrain from confronting it and the sinner.
'Unity at ALL COSTS' is NOT Biblical unity and not of Christ, the Head of the Church, but a fleshly, man made one that serves as a cloak and a veil for sin and vile practices that are not befitting the pure and spotless Bride of Christ that will
one day welcome her Bridegroom.
Another Lesson From The Problematic Corinthian Church
After yet another sharp rebuke to the Corinthian church, Paul says something that is ostensibly controversial; that factions and divisions are a GIVEN and mandatory in a sense. He then goes on to elaborate that these are the only way that those
that are approved and in right standing with God and the traditions He has instituted for His Church may become evident for all to see and receive the proper recognition due to them. Much like wheat that grows alongside tares and sheep
co-mingled with goats. This was a righteous division and separation.
Condemnation Of False Doctrine
In the Ephesian church was a false prophet who was abhorrent in God's eyes. She coerced the believers into sexual immorality and into partaking of food sacrificed to idols. God had stern rebuke and a word about her fate as well as the fate of
those that followed in her abominations.
There would be God's judgment and wrath that would be poured out on both Jezebel and any associated with her. God was displeased that the church had ALLOWED this woman to remain in their midst instead of expunging her. Here again we see that
believers wee to immediately dissociate with a sinning believer or one masquerading as a teacher/prophet. There simply wasn't any question of 'trying to get along' or 'loving that person into repentance'.
In conclusion, the Church is to be united under the Lordship of Christ as the Head (Col. 1:18) and His Spirit, in love and the exercise of the gifts of the Spirit - and to be divided on the basis of sin, false doctrine, false teachers
and prophets. In this way, the Church will assuredly come to maturity, able to discern between what is right and which encourages unity, and what is false and so to be cast off, rejected and removed which causes division within the
body of Christ.
Eph. 4:11: And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12: for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13: till we all come to the UNITY OF THE FAITH and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
1 Cor. 12:12: For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
13: For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free - and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
14: For in fact the body is not one member but many.
15: If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body?
16: And if the ear should say, 'Because i am not an eye, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body?
17: If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?
18: But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
19: And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
20: But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
21: And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you'; nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'
22: No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
23: And those members of the body which we think to be less honourable, on these we bestow great honour; and our unpresentable parts have
greater modesty,
24: but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honour to that part which lacks it,
25: that there should be NO SCHISM in the body, but that the members should have the SAME CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER.
26: And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
1 Thess. 5:19: Do not quench the Spirit.
Eph. 4:11: And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12: for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13: till we all come to the UNITY OF THE FAITH and the KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD, to A PERFECT MAN, to the MEASURE of the STATURE of the FULLNESS OF CHRIST;
14: that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15: but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ -
16: from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Matt. 18:15: Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. if he hears you, you have gained your brother.
16: But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.'
17: And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a HEATHEN and a TAX COLLECTOR.
1 Cor. 5:11: But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner - not even to eat with such a person.
1 Cor. 11:17: Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse.
18: For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are DIVISIONS among you, and in part I believe it.
19: For there MUST BE FACTIONS AMONG YOU, that THOSE WHO ARE APPROVED MAY BE RECOGNIZED AMONG YOU.
20: Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
21: For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk.
22: What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.
Rev. 2:20: Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman jezebel, who calls herself a p rophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
21: And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.
22: Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.
23: I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts.