Are we really called to unity?

I have been talking about love and service a lot lately and how receiving the love of Jesus compels us to love and serve people. The connection is clear. If we receive love from God, it impacts everything in our lives. It changes how we view people and how we treat them. As we are made aware of how much Jesus paid for us to be able to receive His love, it motivates us to share that love with others and to grieve when they reject that love. His love is such a great gift and it is given freely to all so we want people to receive what we have.

The question that I have been asking then is how does that affect our unity in Christ? I have seen two extremes in this and both of them are problematic. In one extreme, people look for a group that aligns with every possible doctrinal and often times even political position and they choose to fellowship with these people only. They have unity because they are so like minded. The other group says that we have to create unity at all costs and we all have to get along so we will just ignore and bury any are of discussion that could be contentious. While I say these two positions are extreme, much of the Church falls into one of these two categories though it may be subconsciously. It happens because that is how we, as people are wired. We look for the place that we are comfortable and we stay there. For some that means we only spend time with like minded people and limit our conversations  to people that are likely to agree with us. The other group hates to feel any confrontation so they are always trying to mitigate and mediate peace even at the expense of truth. They avoid any topic that could be confrontational.

Let's look at the problems of both of these positions. If we spend all of our time with people that we agree with and our unity is based on this agreement, what happens when we run up against a disagreement with our ally? Do we cut them off? Do we leave the fellowship and look for another? If our unity is based on common agreement only, we are in trouble because there will be times that we disagree with even are most ardent ally. If we never learn to walk in unity, despite agreement, we will eventually be a congregation of one. We do need to agree on the major doctrinal points of the Christian faith to work in cooperation and unity but any greater agreement must only be an added bonus not a requirement for unity.

If, on the other hand, our unity is based on the fact that we never discuss any area that could be contentious and we bury those issues, there will come a time that we cannot ignore an issue that arises. We will have to deal with it. While there are many things that do not matter in the big picture, there are some areas of faith and doctrine that matter to a person's standing with Jesus. We cannot ignore things that are clearly wrong from the Scripture. There are times that we will have to take a stand and confront wrong. This will have the ability to be divisive, especially if we never deal with controversial issues, Our unity cannot be based on forced silence on controversial topics.

There is one problem that both of these false unities cannot overcome. When we do not have areas of disagreement and confrontation that we walk through with people, we do not grow. Tension and confrontation are needed elements of growth. Without stresses in a relationship, it is weak and cannot withstand storms that may come. We do not learn from the knowledge and experiences of others when we limit the viewpoints that we hear. We never have to agree on many topics to still have fellowship with one another but we must learn to create dialogue about those things and still love through disagreement. Maturity comes through growth and growth comes from tension. If we want to become the Children that God created us to be, we have to learn to live in a unity that embraces people and not ideologies only. Group think is not our goal.

In John 17, in His prayer, Jesus made it plain that the unity He is calling us to is not man made. It does not come from our efforts to just get along. It comes from a higher place. It is from an exchange of the same supernatural love that exists between the Father and the Son. Jesus asks the Father to put that love in us. He asked that this love which exists between them would also become our love, in them for one another. This unity is based on hearts that are knit together in love and not on areas of agreement. This love allows us to have disagreement and still have close relationship. It produces a unity in us based on Jesus in us and not on sharing the same thoughts on every topic. This love compels us to look out for our brothers and sisters just because we are connected to them in the bond of love.

This love forces us to look at people differently. It makes us see them through the eyes of Jesus. We must learn to let the Holy Spirit interpret what we see in people and show us How they are seen from a heavenly perspective. As we see people the way Jesus does, we will relate to them differently. We will love them with the love He has for them. Our hearts will be to live in peace with them and we will not take every disagreement as a personal affront. We will see the treasure that God has placed in them. Our hearts will be knit together because that is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. We will understand that our role is to love like Jesus and His love was totally self sacrificial. Unity will come because we will know that we are only ambassadors for Jesus and we just standing in for Him. We will not be pressing our own agenda. Our unity will be made perfect in Him and will not be issues focused but heart driven.

2Co 5:14-21 ESV - For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I do not know about you, but I am tired of every disagreement being a litmus test for a person's salvation. There are many things that I feel are important but they are issues of degree more than of personal holiness or sanctification. Not everything I disagree with a person about is big enough for me to cut them off. In Jon we are told that we are called to love our brother and cannot claim to love Jesus if we fail to love that brother. I want the heart of Jesus that fights to be in unity and love that goes beyond the natural. I want to love them from the heart of Jesus and put aside my offense so I can see them as He does. I want to love them in a way that does not count their sins against them but forgives so we can move forward. This does not mean everyone is saved or is following Jesus. It means that they are created in His image and I need to honor them because of that. It does not mean we all have to agree or acquiesce on every topic, only that we have to love through disagreement and not take offense.

How do you see people? Are you willing to learn to walk in a different type of unity than you my have known? Is it worth it to risk offense so that you can walk with a brother?