Too often unity is defined emotionally, psychologically, and culturally rather than biblically. There can be a mindset that if we could just recover some imagined idyllic condition of the first one hundred years of the Church, or if we were just \u201cnicer\u201d to each other, that we would have unity and revival. Here are a few snapshots of the \u201cideal\u201d first century church:<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s no place in the\u00a0ekklesia<\/em>\u00a0for romantic notions regarding Christian unity. With romanticism out of the way, let\u2019s take a look at sausage loving unity and then finish up with some\u00a0real\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>sausage making.<\/span><\/p>\n Church Culture Unity<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 unity based on similarity of expression, style, practices, tastes, preferences, likes and dislikes, age, economic status, etc. We are united as long as we all think, look, and act alike and value the same things. This is conformity of culture, not biblical unity.<\/span><\/p>\n Programmatic Unity<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 unity driven by doing projects and events together. We come together to \u201cwork,\u201d but there is no spiritual substance beyond that. There is no genuine cost to this type of unity, because all the participants know that after the event is over, there is no pressure to have to relate with fellow participants. The event is the bond, rather than genuine love, the only legitimate biblical cement (Col. 3:14). The best program unity will ever produce is the context for the possibility of real unity.<\/span><\/p>\n Persecuted Unity<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 I once knew a missionary who lived in Uganda during the reign of Idi Amin. He discovered that while Amin was martyring thousands of Christians, there was a \u201ccoming together\u201d and unity in the Church.\u00a0\u00a0 Unfortunately, as soon as the pressure of persecution ceased, so did the apparent unity. Everyone reverted to pre-persecution habits and patterns. Even life and death persecution cannot produce real unity.<\/span><\/p>\n Socio-Cultural Norm Unity<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 unity based on avoidance of conflict and confrontation. Individuals who have embraced this will emphasize inordinate sensitivity on not doing or saying anything that upsets anyone. The objective is that no one would feel any discomfort for any reason, at any time. It is a unity that avoids group discipline. Anything goes. There is nothing in scripture that remotely hints that avoidance of subjective discomfort is the basis for Christian unity.<\/span><\/p>\n Denominational Unity<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 is unity assumed to exist within a given denomination or group. I know many ministers who attend their denominational meetings and are heartbroken because of the absence of genuine unity and organic relationship. Wearing the same uniform does not produce unity. The uniform is supposed to be a symbol of something genuine.<\/span><\/p>\n Vision Unity<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 is similar to programmatic unity. Often times there can be an exciting \u201cvision\u201d\u2019 or presentation of Gospel truth that attracts and becomes the gathering focus for unity. The problem with vision unity is that if a more exciting vision comes down the line, the unity built upon the previous vision evaporates. Vision unity is like jumping on the bandwagon for a passing fad. The latest \u201cnew thing\u201d becomes the unifying factor.<\/span><\/p>\n Lowest Common Denominator Unity<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 is the \u201cleave-your-distinctive baggage-at-the-door-unity, the curse of many \u201cpastor\u2019s prayer networks.\u201d Of course, it is always the \u201cother guy\u201d who has to leave his baggage at the door because\u00a0we<\/em>\u00a0don\u2019t have any baggage! This unity lowers the bar for participation as low as it can possibly go, out of fear of being exclusionary or hurting someone\u2019s feelings. Participants cannot be, do, or say who they really are for fear of offending someone else, who will then take his or her ball and go home, thus ending unity.<\/span><\/p>\n Prayer Unity<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 centers around prayer and fellowship\u00a0only<\/strong><\/em>. Not only does it normally not go much beyond that, but sometimes it is also forbidden to go beyond that because any thing approaching authenticity in relationship would be considered bad for unity. Prayer\u00a0may be a good place to start<\/em>, but too often it is the place we settle for because the cost of going deeper toward reality in authenticity as human beings and brothers is simply more than most are willing to pay. You don\u2019t have to trust someone to pray with them. Pray unity is again, at best a starting point as a context for the potential for real unity.<\/span><\/p>\n Political Unity<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 is the shallow, glad-handing spirit that prevails in many pastors\u2019 networks. The unity meeting is a means of personal advancement and self\u2013realization and the self-promotion of the minister, the minister\u2019s organization, and personal agenda. Transparency and honesty are avoided because they hinder the path of self-esteem, peer-esteem, and ministerial advancement. I have had more than one pastor tell me explicitly: if they got real in relationship, it would cost them everything \u201cthey have built\u201d and they are unwilling lose that. That attitude is unworkable unity material.<\/span><\/p>\n Psalm 133 is the Old Testament classic on the subject: the tribes in Jerusalem were gathered to worship Yahweh at feast time.<\/span><\/p>\n The first thing we need to remember is their diversity. Other than their worship, they did not share values and priorities. A landlocked Israelite would not have the same values or priorities as a covenant brother living on the Mediterranean coastline. Their unity could contain those differences. Secondly, the Psalmist uses a Hebrew literary device\u2014the metaphorical couplet\u2014to convey a unified thought: the oil on Aaron\u2019s beard and the dew of Hermon.<\/span><\/p>\n The oil was poured on Aaron\u2019s head and ran down to his collar, not his feet as is commonly believed (The KJV \u2018skirt\u2019 is a most unfortunate rendering). The priestly anointing oil was held in very small quantities in a cruse or horn. The reason for the small quantity was because of its costly preciousness. The oil was obtained by crushing different costly spices and the oil together.<\/span><\/p>\n Genuine Christian unity that commands the blessing is not some cheap sing-along where we all get together, smile at one another, sing a few non-controversial hymns and go home. God\u2019s unity begins with crushing and cost. God\u2019s unity starts with Calvary: Calvary for us, and Calvary in us. Only those who walk in the spirit of Calvary who themselves have allowed the crushing experiences orchestrated by the Holy Spirit in their lives to have full effect, will ever be workable material for the unity that commands the blessing.<\/span><\/p>\n Mt. Hermon was on the northern border of the Amorites at the full geographical extent of Joshua\u2019s victory. Hermon\u2019s dew was carried by winds and settled or watered Mt. Zion and was known for being refreshing.<\/span><\/p>\n Both poetic metaphors are analogies of\u00a0descent,\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(something starting from above, downward) and\u00a0transference<\/em><\/strong>. The psalmist\u2019s point is that commanded blessing unity:<\/span><\/p>\n Transference is a download: one source has it; another doesn\u2019t, but needs it. Biblical Christian unity is transferred from the heavenlies to earth. It doesn\u2019t start with us. It must descend and be transferred upon us. It cannot be organized and legislated from below. It can be received and entered into. The commanded unity blessing will only occur when individuals who themselves have been \u201ctouched from on high\u201d and who have experienced the inner healing of identity and the outer healing of relationships,\u00a0gather together in determinate love one for another.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0A collection of Cross-dodging self-centered people\u00a0will never\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>produce biblical Christian unity.<\/span><\/p>\n If our lives are broken, marriages fragmented, families shattered, and local churches relationally inauthentic, merely gathering the aforementioned in one place under one purpose will\u00a0never\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>produce biblical Christian unity. It is just an agglomeration of dysfunction trying in the power of the Adamic nature to fulfill John 17. The only thing worse than dysfunction is thinking that if we just gather more of it in unified purpose under unified government, something wonderful will happen!<\/span><\/p>\n Unity is not difficult. It\u2019s just costly. Our unity must be in Christ, and Christ alone. Unity must begin and be sustained by our revelation of our union with Him and one another. It is the logical overflow of superabundant love. No vision, no organization, no plan, nor dream will ever realize that which is only possible in response to a gracious heavenly outpouring that transforms hearts causing us to fall irrevocably in love with one another. We simply must become necessities for each other, in the deepest and most genuine way.<\/span><\/p>\n If my American rights to independence and privacy in time, personal space, and money are more important to me than you, your pain, and your needs, we can forget romantic ideals of Christian unity, on any scale. Any model of unity that is based upon mere cooperation or group conformity is doomed to fail because that kind of unity must be maintained by external pressure rather than internal empowerment from transformation. Unity that is maintained by external constraint betrays the Spirit of Christ in the process of pursuing the unity in Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n As long as pastors, ministers, and other types of leaders view people, money, property and assets as \u201ctheirs\u201d there will\u00a0never<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0be Christian unity. As long as leaders insist on the primacy of their own parochial self-interest masquerading as the \u201cmandate and vision God has given me,\u201d John 17 unity will remain a philosophical platitude.<\/span><\/p>\n Unity that is Spirit-born, touched with Calvary, descending from heaven, transforming us inwardly so we can unite outwardly, is in indeed precious. It is circumstantially indissoluble because its quality is eternal. No offense of humanity or attack of the devil can dislodge the Calvary-saturated, commanded blessing unity.<\/span><\/p>\n Christian unity is relational and covenantal. It is based on His cross: revealed, appropriated, and applied. It is covenantal love that is maintained in the presence of conflict and differences, at great emotional, spiritual, psychological, time, and financial. So are you and I sausage lovers or sausage makers? Are we serious about the hard work of Christian unity? Are we ready to give ourselves to the real thing, or are we going to settle for the less costly counterfeits? Jesus is for us, and in us, to accomplish through us, what our flesh and ego will allow.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
What Does Genuine Christian Unity Look Like?<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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So is John 17 a pipe dream? Was Paul an idealist? Not at all.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n
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