The Church, when viewed according to the mind of God, is a unity, a single body—the body of Christ—formed and connected with its living Head by the Holy Spirit sent down to abide here on earth. Thus formed into oneness in and with Christ, it is separate from the world, is heavenly in its character, and is to have its place down here as a witness for an absent Christ and as waiting His return to take it to glory. The gatherings of the Church are to be “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” only (1 Cor. 5:4); the smallest number thus gathered have His presence and His administrative power in their midst (Matt. 18:20).
The Body of Christ
The characterization of the Church as the body of Christ is, no doubt, a figure, but it is one that the Holy Spirit constantly employs in order to show the union of members with one another as well as with Christ, their dependence upon one another as well as upon Christ. If the Church is the body of Christ, believers are “one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Rom. 12:5). Therefore, “The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you” (1 Cor. 12:21). Furthermore, if “one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it” (verse 26). Therefore, the body is a figure used to show the closest possible union among believers. However, since the Church is one body, the body of Christ, part of the testimony which it is called upon to bear is the manifestation of this oneness on earth.
“That They May Be One”
Thus Jesus prays the Father, “Keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are” (John 17:11). Here oneness is asked, oneness of a most blessed character—a transcript of that transcendent oneness of the Father and the Son. The oneness of nature is, indeed, a depth which man’s intellect can never fathom, but the oneness of purpose and of love has been divinely manifested. This oneness, at least, believers are to exhibit to the world.
However, it may be objected that this oneness was not to be outward and visible, but only in spirit, as seen by God. But let us look at another text: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me (John 17:20,21). Here Jesus prays for all “who shall believe on Me through their word.” Surely each believer will eagerly claim his part in this. But if all believers are included, the Lord’s request for them all is that they may be made one even as He Himself was one with the Father. And this oneness—far from being invisible to the world—was to be the evidence to the world of the Father’s having sent the Son. If God meant it to be a testimony to the world, He must
have meant it to be something that the world could see. Therefore, if the oneness of believers is not visible to the world, the Church has failed in its testimony. There may be abundant individual testimony that the Father has sent the Son; but the testimony here named, the testimony that was to be borne by the manifest oneness of believers, cannot come from a divided Church.
How earnestly the appeal is over and over again repeated to oneness of heart and mind. “Be perfect,” says the apostle to the Corinthians, “be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you” (2 Cor. 13:11). He entreats the Ephesians to walk in love, “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” and adds, “there is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph. 4:3-6). In like manner the gifts bestowed by our ascended Christ are distributed “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come, in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (verses 12,13). Wherever we look, the oneness that belongs to the Church in the mind of God is expected to find its manifestation here on earth.
It is important to note the priority that the exhortations to unity possess in the teaching of God’s Word. When Christ prays for the disciples He was about to leave, the first request He makes for them is “that they may be one, as We are.” When He enlarges the circle and embraces in His petitions “those also who shall believe on Me through their word,” the first thing He asks for them is “that they all may be one.” So, when, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, believers are exhorted to walk worthy of their vocation, the first way in which this walk is to manifest itself is by “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” And where, as among the Corinthians, there has been a want of that lowliness and meekness, that long-suffering and forbearance in love which are needful to the preservation of unity, the first of the many errors which the apostle selects for rebuke and remonstrance is the “division” that had appeared in their midst. Thus, the manifestation of unity was far from being a secondary or indifferent matter in the mind of Christ or in the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
Division Condemned
Nowhere in Scripture do we find the slightest trace of the modern philosophy that defends sects as securing variety in unity, that says, “Let men have their own thoughts on all matters but the great essential truths of salvation.” Sects are utterly condemned as the divisions of Christ, and every thought is to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Divisions are a result of carnality, disobedience, and self-will.
In Christendom today, division and sectarianism have ceased to be looked upon as disobedience, and have been quietly acquiesced in as either a positive good or a necessary evil. But if God’s Word condemns it, as we have seen, it certainly cannot be good. Is it, then, a necessary evil? In other words, are believers obliged to act in disobedience to God’s directions? Surely the bare suggestion refutes itself. God has marked out a way for His people to walk in obedience. Our ignorance may fail to find it, but God’s faithfulness has not failed to provide it.
Division Condemned, Separation
from Evil Enjoined
Here an important question arises. Are believers to hold together whatever evil doctrine or practice is tolerated? Or, if not, how is division to be avoided? The Word of God is perfectly clear. Division is condemned, while separation from evil is enjoined. Where false doctrine or immorality has shown itself, separation is to take place. Thus, when there was immoral conduct at Corinth, the leaven was to be purged out (1 Cor. 5:7); if a person preached another gospel than the one Paul had taught the Galatians, “Let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8,9); and when Hymenaeus and Alexander made shipwreck concerning the faith, they were “delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme” (1 Tim. 1:20). However, this was not division. It was united action, shown in separating from evil. Even if large numbers had supported Hymenaeus and Alexander, and had gone out with them—in fact, if all the assembly had upheld them except two or three who in faithfulness to Christ withdrew from them—the act of these latter would merely have been godly separation from evil, and the division which had occurred would have been the act of those who followed the false teachers, not of those who, in obedience to the Lord’s mind, separated from them. As far as these were concerned, whether few or many, the principle of the oneness of the Church would have been maintained, and no departure from the divine order would have occurred. They would have remained on God’s ground, and would have constituted the outward manifestation of His Assembly or Church.
Suppose a teacher tells his pupils that he does not wish them to be scattered, and therefore they are all to remain in the playground. The playground then becomes the place where their oneness is to be shown. If some wander away from the playground, the manifested oneness is gone, but which of the pupils maintain the principle of it—those who go away, or those who remain where they were told? Even if those who remain are but two or three out of two or three hundred, they have not caused the division, and their separation from those who disobeyed the teacher by leaving the playground, so far from breaking up the oneness, keeps them in the only place where the oneness which the teacher desired could have been exhibited. Therefore, godly separation from evil is not division and sectarianism, for the truth of God cannot contradict itself. Separation from evil never makes sects, and is a necessary step in delivering ourselves from sects.
In conclusion, sects and denominations are entirely contrary to God’s Word. Does it make matters any better that they are of centuries standing? “God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent” (Num. 23:19). What He has once declared evil cannot become good by long continuance. Now, what am I to do if I find myself involved in that which God condemns? I am bound to search His Word to learn how I can escape from it, and I am entitled to reckon with the most absolute confidence that He has provided such a way for those who faithfully seek it.
(From The Lord’s Coming, Israel, and the Church.)