The night before He was crucified, the Lord Jesus prayed a high-priestly, intercessory prayer to His Father concerning His disciples. He prayed, “Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one, as We are” (John 17:11). Jesus knew there would always be a tendency—aided and abetted by Satan—for His disciples to go their separate ways and start their own independent ministries and congregations. So He expresses, not only for His Father’s “ears” but for those of His disciples as well, His desire that His disciples remain united in spirit after His departure.
The Lord does not stop there: “Neither pray I for these [twelve disciples minus Judas] alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word; that they all … may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (17:20,21). This unity desired first for His disciples was to extend to all believers in Christ. One very practical effect of such a unity would be its testimony to the watching world that Jesus Christ had truly been sent by God (“Thou hast sent Me”).
One Body
In answer to this prayer, the Holy Spirit came down and baptized the believers in Christ “into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13; see also Rom. 12:4,5; 1 Cor. 10:16,17; 12:12-27; Eph. 2:16; 4:4; Col. 3:15).
I have heard or read it expressed a number of times: “God has arranged the Church into many different denominations so that each believer may select the one with the kind of pastor, manner of worship, scheme of church government, or variety of activities that best suit his/her needs or personality.” NOT SO! By no means is God responsible for the many denominations and divisions of the Church! Sinful man is!
In the early years of the Church, there was indeed one body in every sense of the word. There were no divisions, no denominations. It is true that there were assemblies of believers in many different countries, states, cities, and villages. But the New Testament clearly shows that a strong unity existed among these assemblies. There existed what is sometimes termed “a circle of fellowship.” The Church, the whole body of believers, did not consist of many independent local assemblies but of interdependent assemblies, geographically separated but united together as a complete and entire organism. Let us look at various Scriptural evidences of this unity.
The Use of Letters of Commendation. When brothers or sisters from one assembly visited another assembly, they carried with them letters of introduction and commendation from their home assembly, or from a well-known believer (such as the apostle Paul), to the assembly being visited (see Acts 19:24-28; Rom. 16:1,2; 2 Cor. 3:1 for examples). Alternatively, Barnabas personally commended Saul of Tarsus to the believers in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26,27).
The Ministry of Paul. The apostle Paul did not confine his ministry to one assembly. In addition to helping to establish assemblies of believers in many places, he revisited most of these plus many others in order to build up the saints through ministry of the Word of God. He also wrote letters (called “epistles” in our Bibles) to a number of them, addressing problems specific to each one. In his epistles to the assemblies, Paul often sought to remind the saints of their unity with all of the other assemblies in the Church as a whole: “The churches of Christ salute you” (Rom. 16:16). “Paul … unto the church of God that is at Corinth … with all who in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; see also 1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17; 16:1).
The Help of Assemblies One for Another. A particular manifestation of the interdependence of assemblies in the early Church was the way the different local assemblies helped each other (see 1 Cor. 16:2,3; 2 Cor. 8:1-15; 9:1-15; Phil. 4:14-18).
The Uniting of Believers of Various Ethnic Backgrounds. The earliest members of the Church were Jewish converts to Christ. The first were 120 or so disciples of the Lord (Acts 1:15) upon whom the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. These were soon followed by 3,000 more Jewish men and women who responded to the preaching of the apostle Peter (Acts 2:41). Later, the gospel went out to the Samaritans and the Greek and Roman Gentiles, with many of these saved and added to the Church as well (Acts 8:5-17; 10:45,46; 16:34).
While a longstanding animosity existed between Jews and Samaritans and between Jews and Gentiles, God worked things out to show clearly that the same Holy Spirit who brought the Jewish believers into the Church, the body of Christ, brought the Samaritan and Gentile believers into that same body.
The apostle Paul emphasizes the oneness of Jewish and Gentile believers: “He is our peace, who has made both [that is, Jew and Gentile] one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us … to make in Himself of two one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body … For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:14-18).
There is not one body or Church for Jews and another for Gentiles; not one Spirit for Jews and another for Samaritans; not one Lord for whites and another for blacks; not one faith for males and another for females; not one baptism for Americans and another for Asians. Rather, “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” (Eph. 4:1-6).
The Resolving of Differences Between Assemblies. The unity of assemblies in the early Church was further demonstrated when “certain men who came down from Judea [to Antioch] taught the brethren and said, “Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). A delegation of brothers from the Antioch assembly, including Paul and Barnabas, went to Jerusalem to discuss this matter with the believers there (Acts 15:7-9). After the brethren of both assemblies resolved that the Gentile believers should not be required to be circumcised, the assembly at Jerusalem sent a delegation to the assembly at Antioch confirming the satisfactory agreement reached on the controversial question.
In this account we find a wonderful example of the care, concern, and unity that should exist among the local assemblies in the Church, the one body of Christ. Satan hates this unity of God’s people, and does all he can to disrupt and destroy it. What a credit to both the Antioch and Jerusalem assemblies that the brothers took great pains to resolve the conflict rather than deciding to split and divide over their disagreement.
“That They All May Be One”
Given the sad history of the Christian Church over the past 2,000 years, its unity having been tragically smashed into thousands of divisions, sects, and denominations, we might throw up our hands in despair and cry, “What’s the use?” But the Lord, knowing full well what the history of the Church would turn out to be like, nevertheless prayed “that they all may be one.” Let us then, each one of us, look within ourselves to see if there is any attitude or behavior that could be used by Satan to foment even more divisions within the body of Christ.
Let’s face it. Being part of a local church or assembly of believers for any length of time can be a very trying experience. It shouldn’t be so if all truly have been saved from their sins by the precious blood of Christ and are seeking to be followers of Christ (Eph. 5:1,2). But many of the selfish habits, behaviors, and attitudes (such as the want of meekness, humility, and mutual forbearance) that are responsible for the disgracefully high divorce rate in Western society have become painfully evident in the local church as well.
Ideally, members of a local church meet together one and maybe several times a week to study the Bible, pray, worship, work, and make plans and decisions together. But while these experiences ought to be a foretaste of heaven, sadly they often are the farthest thing from it. However, considering the variety of personalities that may be joined together in the local church—males and females, nonagenarians and teens, blacks and whites, Jews and Gentiles, elementary school dropouts and college graduates, rich and poor, aggressive types and laid-back types—and that all are still carrying around our old sin nature, perhaps it is a wonder that local churches function as well as they do.
Let us each ask ourselves:
1. Is there someone in the congregation whom I don’t like, and particularly, with whom I am not on speaking terms?
2. Do I find myself wanting to have everything my way in the local church, always shooting down the suggestions and proposals made by other people?
3. Do I find myself frequently grumbling and complaining about any of the following: teaching and preaching by those who are poorly prepared or simply not edifying? prayers and praises that are rote recitations rather than the Spirit-led outpouring of a heart that is close to the Lord? quality of the singing and/or the hymns selected for singing? the outreach programs? the lack of outreach programs? management of finances? anything else?
4. Do I consider myself to be spiritually superior to, and/or more advanced in knowledge of the Scriptures than, everyone else in the assembly?
5. Do I become impatient with brothers and sisters in Christ who are not as advanced spiritually as I am?
6. Do I find myself to be in conflict with others in the local assembly concerning a matter of church discipline?
These, I believe, are a few of the things that Satan and his host of emissaries are looking for when deciding what group of Christians to attack and rip apart next.
Let us confess and exterminate any un-Christlike behaviors and attitudes before Satan is able to get an advantage over us (2 Cor. 2:11). Let us seek to do everything in our power, in accordance with Scripture and by the leading of the Holy Spirit, to fulfill our Lord’s earnest prayer, the night before He laid down His life for us, that we “all may be one” (John 17:21).
Healing of Past Divisions
We cannot close this consideration of the unity of believers without asking what, if anything, can be done to heal the divisions that already exist. The Scriptures give instruction only for restoring an individual who has been put away because of wicked doctrine or behavior (compare 2 Corinthians 2:1-11 with 1 Corinthians 5). If a division or separation has occurred in a fellowship due to the allowance of wrong doctrine or practice, and if individuals associated with the evil come to see their wrong, they should—upon their confession and forsaking of the wrong—be received by those who separated from them.
The merging of two entire bodies of believers, while the idea seems commendable on first thought, lacks Scriptural authority. When such has been attempted, it generally results in dropouts from both fellowships and even more divisions. Also, the leaders’ eagerness to push the union to completion may often result in failure to inform fully every individual in each fellowship of all of the details of the proposed merger, or to provide adequate time for consideration and discussion by all. In the absence of clear Scriptural instruction for effecting such mergers of entire fellowships, it would seem best for God’s people to adhere to their primary focus of living day to day and week to week to the glory of God, and to seek to avoid further division by endeavoring, “with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love … to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2,3).