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September 19, 2024: Unity in the Church

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making 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 at your calling—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1–6, CSB)

The Church does not belong to its membership, its clergy, or its ecclesiastical structures. It was not given birth by human means. She is not held together by human effort nor do good men and women build the Church. Jesus says, …I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. (Matthew 16:18, CSB) It is not ours to define but to receive from Our Lord.

Since the Church is the bride of Christ Jesus, we are received as sons and daughters of the Church. Saint Augustine said, “No one can have God as his father who does not have the Church as his mother.” Christians are not called to live in isolation but in fellowship. Christians are not to follow their heart but God’s word. Two verses in the Old Testament are identical, Judges 17:6 and Judges 21:25: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.Without the authority of a king, they decided for themselves what was right. As we look at the context of those two passages, we are shocked by the ungodly actions the Israelites undertook. Rationalizing God’s word through our own desires is the continuation of the temptation of the serpent: …Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”(Genesis 3:1, CSB)

Those who have been baptized into the Lord, are no longer isolated strangers but members of God’s household.

So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19–22, CSB)

Thus, the Church is called into one household, and we should make “every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” The devil delights when the Church forms circular firing squads. The Church is called to first love God and then one another. So, why the great delight in winning theological arguments that destroy unity? Yes, there are heretical beliefs that must be censured—even times for anathema but never for light and transient causes. Creedal Christianity provides the holy essentials—let us never require our nonessentials. In a world where darkness is so prevalent, we must make every effort to further the kingdom of God rather than our own agendas.

 

“There have been men before … who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God himself… as if the good Lord had nothing to do but to exist. There have been some who were so preoccupied with spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

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