Walking in Christian Unity

Don’t “Let it Go”

There is a song all of you have sung before, that took the world by storm back in 2012...”Let it go”.

Now can anyone tell me what the story of the song “let it go” is?

Let’s look at the lyrics

“Don’t let them in, don’t let them see. Be the good girl you always have to be. Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know. Well, now then know”

This line is her dealing with the struggle of “In order for me to be the person others want me to be I have to “hide” myself, but once they get close to me they will push me away because if they see the “real” me they won’t like me.

So what is her solution?

“Let it go…I don’t care what they’re going to say”

and as she concludes that she is going to “let it go” she says “no right, no wrong, no rules for me.” and later she says “that perfect girl is gone”

So her solution to “they will never accept me” is “throw away everything I have been taught is right and wrong and do what feels like is ‘truly me’.

So how does Elsa do that?

By making herself a secluded ice castle all by herself where no one can tell her right and wrong, she makes her own rules and she can “let it go”.

But where does that leave her? All alone an in ice castle with no one to care for and complete oblivious to the consequences of her choices. In fact, she only realizes just how destructive her new lifestyle is when Anna comes and tells her “your choice has affected everyone around you.”

Today, Paul shows us the truth of unity in God, the benefit of diversity in unity, and the maturity that is found in unity. What Paul (and the Bible) tells us is the opposite of Let it Go and what the world tells us.

The world tells us “don’t let anyone else define what is ‘true for you’, that ‘if it doesn’t hurt anyone else than why does it matter?’ and “you don’t need anyone else as long as you are your ‘true, authentic self’”

So how are we to develop this unity? With humility and gentleness, with patience in bearing with one another in love, and doing everything we can to keep unity through peace rather than let gossip and arguments tear us apart.

Unity through the Truth in God

What word comes up the most in verses 3-6? ONE.

One body, one Spirit, one hope at your calling

The one body is the church, both Jews and Gentiles, and the Spirit that unifies the body. The Spirit through the church is the one who gives us hope in our calling to be part of the body in the church

One Lord, one faith, one baptism

Jesus is the head of the church and bring us access to God.

Jesus is the one who we have faith in, there is nowhere else for us to have faith.

And Jesus is the only one in whom we should be baptized into in order to receive salvation.

Jesus is the one we believe in and we are baptized into and so He is the one we have hope in.

One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

God the Father is the one who adopts believers as sons and daughters. The one who creates and who brings together the church.

God is above all, that is He is the supreme authority who we trust in. He brings us joy knowing He has final say over all things.

God is through all, He works through people and through His creation to make His purposes known. He does this for our good works and for His glory.

God is in all, He dwells in believers by the Spirit and His presence is with us.

Therefore Paul is calling the church to be unified by the ONE, TRUE God and by nothing else. That all believers in all places have this one thing that brings them unity. The Triune God who by the Spirit gives the church power, who are united by our one Lord Jesus, and on Father whose purposes we live out. The Trinity doesn’t just unify the church but it is also our perfect example of unity.

The Benefit of Diversity in Unity

Notice how verse 7 starts, grace was given “to each one of us”. Paul had previous talked about ONE in a universal says, but now he discusses one in an individual sense. That God gave His grace individually and not just universally. Paul shows that just because there is unity does not mean we are exactly the same or bland. In fact it is more like a beautiful tapestry or mosaic that with each piece together shows the whole picture. Unity means harmony rather than uniformity.

We each received grace, “according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Jesus works in each one of us. The word for “gift” is the word for “charisma”, and here it means that each by Jesus is give a different amount or type of this “gift”. It isn’t the same.

The main point that Paul makes is at the beginning Christ-like conduct is the basis of unity. Because he tells us that he wants us “to walk worthy of the calling you have received.” That is, that they are to act like Jesus who they falling in being called to live for Him, and this is the basis of the unity they have with one another. That brings us to communion.

We know that Jesus has given us gifts because of this quotation from Psalm 68 and he applies it to believers. What he means by it is that Jesus took captive and rescued those who were previously captive to sin and he gave them gifts to glorify God.

How did Jesus “give” these gifts? Well the one who “ascended” at first needed to “descend” to earth and became a human in order to defeat death so then He could “fill all things.”

The Maturity Found in Unity

Each of these three things we have discussed has opportunity for conflicts, for arguments, for hatred.

People have disagreed about who God is throughout time. Wars have happened between religious groups because they believe that their God is better. Even within Christianity there have been arguments over pieces of what we believe that have led to wars between denominations.

But what Paul says is that we shouldn’t let these disagreements lead us towards conflict. BUT NEITHER should it lead us away from the truth.

Rather “there is on Lord, one God and Father of all.” He knows there will be disagreements, he knows other will fight against them because of the truth. They will fight with each others. But what he tells them is that they should be united by a common truth and to lead others to this common truth. That what everyone is searching for is what they have.

Paul has this conversation in Acts 17 with these philosophers who worshipped many idols. They called him “ignorant” for believing in only one God. But Paul pointed out how they had an object they worshipped that says “to an unknown God”. Why would they have an idol to an unknown God? Well they didn’t want to miss out on something they should be worshipping but didn’t so they were trying to cover all their basis. But Paul told them “I know the God you are searching for, it is the one true God, the God who made the whole world, the one who wasn’t created nor does He need anyone to give Him anything in order to have life. Rather He is the life giver.”

See, our world works in much of the same way “take a little of this, take a little of that.” And most people don’t seem to see how this conglomeration of beliefs are full of ironies. That each religion, each belief is contradictory to the other. That we believe these competing things that leave us confused.

Sometimes diversity can be seen as a negative thing. We are “too” different, we can’t find common ground, and we decide because we are so different that it is best to go our separate ways. Or even worse we decide the other person is wrong and we are right and we are spiteful towards them for disagreeing.

But what Paul talks about is unity within diversity. Because the thing that unifies us is much stronger than the things that divide us.

The analogy used in the Bible is of a body. Think about if instead of having two arms you just had more noses there. Or if you didn’t have two eyes, you just had another mouth. First of all, those would look weird. Second of all, you need the diversity of gifts and attributes of your body in order for it to function properly. Too much of the same ends up not as good as having different things that benefit us in different ways.

But the whole body is unified in its desire to keep you alive. There is a common goal of every body part. In the same way we are unified in our desire to glorify God as the church.

Last, we can believe that anyone who thinks we have made the wrong choice hates us, and so we decide that we are going to just do things our own way.

But where would a child be if they didn’t have loving discipline from a parent? Or how would a student grow unless they are told they have the wrong answer so that they can find the right answer? Or how would someone who has a job get better at their job unless someone told them that a better way to do the task they have and more efficiently?

See, growth as people requires other people who we have, and not just people who are going to tell us everything we are doing is correct, but someone who is willing to tell us that we are wrong. We need to be willing to accept criticism rather than ignore it or act as if any criticism is a form of hatred against us.

What qualities define our conduct?

Humility

That is, they recognize their true state and recognize the one who is greater than them.

-Humility is essential to unity, because behind all conflicts is pride. Those that we think we are better than we will treat like they are lower than us rather than those made equally in the image of God.

-Humility leads us to respect others and often will lead to our own respect as well, this is what leads to peace rather than conflict.

-But often in our world people see humility as a weakness. I’ve heard plenty students say “I’m different”, I’m sure you have heard people say this. Or people say “do what’s best for you, don’t let anyone stand in your way.” This is to boast in yourself and to believe that you have a RIGHT to what other people have.

Gentleness

This is to not be excessively angry and able to think clearly in frustrating circumstances. It is the ability to have self-control. I read it one way that it is being able to be “angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time.”

-To not seek revenge or seek to do a wrong towards another person

-But know when to be angry when another person has been wronged and you have the ability to address it.

-This is crucial to unity because often friendships are torn apart and conflicts happen when people aren’t able to control their emotions.

Patience

It is the ability to have endurance without immediate results. For Christians it is the ability to wait for God to fulfill His promises. Impatience can lead to people making hasty decisions that negatively affect others.

Unity is often destroyed when people aren’t patient with one another and with circumstances.

Bearing with one another in love

That is to seek the best for others even when another may not treat you in the same way. To not be resentful towards others but being able to deal with differences you may have in love.

This means that you keep unity even when you have differences.

Keep the unity of the spirit

That is, to not destroy unity but to do everything they can to keep unity with one another. The important piece is that they keep unity “through the Spirit”, therefore they keep unity through being close to God.

Q: What would be the opposite of the character qualities Paul gives in v. 1-3? What character qualities do you think you have that benefits unity? What qualities do you need to work on?

Q:When was the last time you maintained unity by having a difficult conversation with someone? If you haven’t, what do you think that might look like?

Q: Do you think you “need” the church? Do you think the church needs you?

Q: How do you think diversity in the church benefits it? How does it lead to maturity?

PQ: What spiritual gifts do you think each of our family members have? Have you used your spiritual gifts to serve someone in the last few months?

PQ: What are common things that we argue about? How do you think we could work to love each other even when we disagree?

PQ: What are some areas that you think you can become more mature in?