Maintaining Unity

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Ephesians 4:1-6

We live in a world with many churches with differing beliefs and theologies. How can we maintain unity when these beliefs and practices vary so widely, causing many churches to split or disband altogether?

There is a story about a poor church in Tennessee in the early 1900s. The congregation had a terrible argument, and eventually, there was a split.

They couldn’t stand each other. However, neither side could afford to leave and build or buy their own church building. So, they both continued to worship in the same building. But they still would have nothing to do with one another.

In those days, the church building was heated by coal. Out back, there was a storage shed where the coal was kept.

Someone said there was a sign posted on the shed that said, “One Lord, One Faith, Two Coal Piles!”

Unity was definitely missing in that place!

Unity within the Church is of the greatest importance to Jesus.

On the night He was betrayed, He prayed, in His prayer to His Father, and recorded in John 17:20-21: “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those 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 may also be in us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

And we find Paul agreed with the necessity of unity when he wrote to the church at Ephesus: “Eager to maintain the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).

Paul continued in his message to the church in Ephesus: “There is One Body and One Spirit – just as you were called to the One Hope that belongs to your call – One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of all.”

One researcher named J. Gordon Melton found that there are 1,517 different recognized denominations in the United States alone. He included cults such as the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, along with some peculiar groups, in his list.

For instance, the Church of the Mystery of Universal Wisdom believes that it can communicate with aliens and seeks guidance from flying saucers.

Then there is the Nudist Christian of the Blessed Virgin Jesus. I'm not sure what this group believes or teaches, but we can be sure it is not the Gospel that Jesus teaches.

Finally, there is the Church of God Anonymous. This group is hard to find ….

The point of all of this is that there is a lot of division going on in so-called churches that claim to follow Jesus. But they look nothing like Jesus, whether in their behavior or their beliefs.

There are over 1500 denominations in the United States alone!

When Paul wrote the letter to the church at Ephesus, one church split had already occurred.

There was a group of Jews who had become Christians, and they were not pleased with the fact that the church – through God’s guidance – had decided that Gentiles didn’t have to be circumcised to become Christians.

These Jewish believers thought circumcision should be required. So, they went about the task of going to all the Gentile churches and insisted that these Gentiles be circumcised.

And one of the churches the Jewish Christians went to was the church at Ephesus.

Now, Paul finds out about this teaching and writes to the church in Galatia, condemning them as heretics. He writes to them in Galatians 5:12 – “As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!”

Paul was angry – these heretics had "perverted the message of salvation.”

The Apostle John was angry that these antichrists had perverted the teaching about Jesus. He says that in his ministry he had seen that “many antichrists have come; therefore, we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. Who is the liar—this antichrist—but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

In his letter in our New Testament – 1 John 3:18-19 and 23 – makes the direct declaration: “This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father.”

Also, we find in Jude 1:3-4 that Jude was also angry that these godless men were perverting God’s grace, when he wrote:

I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the trace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

So, Paul was upset that these circumcisers had perverted the message of how to become a Christian.

John was upset that the anti-Christs were perverting the truth of who Jesus was.

And Jude was upset that ungodly people were perverting the message of God’s grace.

It is impossible to have unity with people who pervert God’s message. These groups had crept into the church and began to spread these false teachings in the church.

And those false teachings were dividing the church.

Paul knew that false teachings were dividing the church, but he still told the Christians in the church at Ephesus to maintain unity.

Paul wasn’t saying that we should accept false teaching but that if we are going to have unity, we must have the right attitude about it.

Read vss. 1-3 again.

In other words, we are expected to be Humble – and we are to be Gentle with one another. We are to be Patient with one another – especially with those who are young in the faith – and we are to bear with each other in Love.

Those are the attitudes that are necessary to maintain unity.

Let’s take another look at that church in Tennessee that I spoke about earlier.

How do you think they got to the point where they hated each other so much? It is obvious that they were not very gentle and patient and loving toward one another.

There were likely many hateful things said – people’s feelings got hurt.

Nobody was willing to forgive anybody when that happened, so the congregation settled into bitterness, slander, and hatred.

A little later, further into the 4th chapter of Ephesians Paul wrote these words: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (vss. 31-32).

That is how we maintain unity in the church. We avoid saying anything detrimental against anyone.

We maintain unity by being gentle, patient, and loving. We will continue to be gentle, patient, and loving until the problem is solved.

Some might ask – why should we do that? Why should we try to be nice to people we don’t like?

It is because the Church is not ours – the Church is founded on this:

There is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, and one God and Father of all. So, the church belongs to God and to His Son.

I am sure you have all heard the accounts of why some churches have split. It may have been over the type of carpet for the church, the paint on the walls, or whether we should use musical instruments in worship—there are multitudes of excuses churches have allowed to split a congregation.

By the way, I am not inferring that those issues exist here. In the going on six years, I have had the privilege of worshipping with you here. I have seen a family working together because we love the Lord, believe His Word, and love one another.

So, I would simply say – we are called to be peacemakers, and Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Sons of God. – Matthew 5:9

Being gentle, patient, and loving can work even on people who have been caught up in bad doctrines.

2 Timothy 2:23-26 READ

But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

Do you see what Paul is saying there? We are to treat those who disagree with the Scriptural doctrines the same way we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are to respond with kindness, gentleness, and patience.

If we do that right, God has the power to tug at the heart and mind of that person we may see as hopeless. He can bring about a change of heart and mind. He can help us help one who is lost escape the snare of Satan.

Did you ever know anyone who hates to lose an argument? That person will use subtle insults and putdowns. They will try to cut a person down to size with a few well-chosen words.

God hates that! He tells us so through the writing in the letter of James – 1:26: “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.”

And James further says in his letter – 3:9 – “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness,”

I read about a Christian church preacher who said that he was a problematic student when he began Bible College. At Bible College, he first heard that baptism was necessary for salvation. He didn’t believe it and argued with his professors about it.

But the professors didn’t put him down or treat him with contempt. They patiently kept pointing him to what the Scriptures say about salvation and baptism – quoting Galatians 3:27 and Colossians 2:11-12, Acts 22:16, 1 Peter 3:21, and Acts 2:38.

The preacher said that after hearing those verses for so long, it made a difference. He realized he couldn’t argue with Scripture, and his professors didn’t beat him into submission with insults and putdowns.

He said he finally understood that no place in the Bible says people “prayed to be saved,” and there was no place where people “asked Jesus into their hearts.”

He began to understand that it was Faith, Repentance, Confession of Jesus as Lord, and Baptism. And that was it for him.

As we witness to anyone who is outside of Christ and as we have the opportunity to teach them the way to salvation, we must have the attitude of patience, gentleness, and kindness.

Having the right attitude can influence people who have been indoctrinated with bad – unscriptural doctrine.

You probably know the saying: “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.”

As we lead people to Christ, we must maintain an attitude of patience, gentleness, and kindness.