What’s Killing Our Unity?

Today’s Reading from God’s Word

Romans 15:5–7 CSB

5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice. 7 Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God.

Introduction

In early 2015, a mother of the bride posted a picture of this dress wanting to know if it was appropriate to wear to her daughter’s wedding.

The daughter saw white & gold.

The mother saw blue & black.

They couldn’t agree, so she posted it online to settle it.

And instead, the world couldn’t agree either.

within 24 hours, 10 million tweets.

Buzzfeed crashed.

Ellen DeGeneres posted about it.

Taylor Swift weighed in.

Even NASA scientists were asked to explain it.

So, is the dress blue and black … or white and gold?

No matter how you answer, you are probably certain of what you’re seeing. Not just pretty sure …. certain.

People argued with their spouses over this.

Offices split into factions.

Friendships were tested.

One side looking at the same thing …seeing something completely different.

Now, I want you to hold that image in your mind today.

Because heres something I’ve noticed over the last decade or so…

The church has a dress problem.

We look at the same Bible.

We worship the same Lord.

We’ve been saved by the same blood.

And somehow we end up in factions.

Certain we’re right.

Baffled that anyone could see if differently.

And the arguing almost never stops.

So today, as we’re starting a new sermon series for March …and a new quarter … I want to begin, not telling you unity is important … you already know that … I want to begin by asking an honest question:

What is actually killing our unity?

Because something is.

And if you look here in our text, Paul is writing to the church in Rome - a congregation he has never visited, full of people he has never met.

Jewish/Gentile Christians who are rubbing each other raw over food and feast days and who’s right and who’s wrong.

Let’s read again what he says:

Romans 15:5–7 CSB

5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice. 7 Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God.

Three verses…

That’s all … but there is a wealth of things to consider inside them.

Today, we’ll ask, what kills our unity, and what does God say about it?

We’ve Confused Unity with Uniformity

This really is the oldest mistake in the book.

Somewhere along the way, we decided unity means everyone thinks the same way, worships the same way, and arrives at the same conclusions about every passage in the Bible.

That is not unity. That is cloning.

And it is expecting something impossible.

Again, let’s direct our minds back to who Paul is writing to:

Jewish Christians who gerw up keeping the Sabbath, observing feast days, avoiding certain foods.

Gentile Christians who had never heard about any of that.

They shared the same Lord, same baptism, and same communion table.

Yet, completely different backgrounds.

Paul doesn’t tell one side to become the other.

Now, let’s go back to the beginning of the chapter. (v. 1)

Romans 15:1 CSB

1 Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves.

“obligation” is not a suggestion. It’s a responsibility.

And now, v. 3:

Romans 15:3 CSB

3 For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.

This statement drives the entire passage.

The standard for how we treat each other isn’t fairness or even kindness.

It’s the self-giving of Christ at the cross.

Look again at verse 7:

Romans 15:7 CSB

7 Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God.

Do you see it? welcome one another.

This word in the original language, means to take someone fully into your fellowship. See them as a companion.

Not tolerate them.

Not put up with them.

Receive them … the way Christ receives you.

“To grant access to one’s heart.”

“To take into friendship.”

We should be willing to extend to them the same privileges we would to others in the same relationship.

Here’s something else about “welcoming one another” we need to understand:

We not only initiate the welcome, but we participate in it.

In other words, when you accept someone, you yourself are changed by that act.

You take them to yourself.

This is not just polite tolerance, Paul is calling for something that costs you and transforms you.

How This is Accomplished

The ESV uses the word “accept” here...

Accepting can be difficult and demanding … but can be accomplished. Here’s how:

A void passing judgment on a weaker brother.

C ommit yourself to live for Christ.

C ontrol your attitudes and emotions with love.

E dify everyone you can.

P rivately hold to your personal convictions.

T reasure people like Jesus did.

How did Christ Receive You?

Let’s focus on something else Paul says in v. 7:

We accept or receive others, just as Christ also welcomed you.

Did he wait until you had everything figured out?

Did he require you to clear up every theological question first?

Did he check your opinions before He went to the cross?

We know the answers to these questions.

He accepted us when we were still a mess.

And he calls on us to do the same.

We’ve Made Secondary Things Primary

Now back to v. 5:

Romans 15:5 CSB

5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus,

live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus.

Not according to our tradition.

Not according to what we were taught growing up.

Not according to which brotherhood paper we read.

according to Christ Jesus.

Think about it.

Paul has just spent two chapters (All of Romans 14 and the first part of chapter 15), dealing with real conflicts in the Roman church.

Meat sacrifices to idols, holy days, dietary restrictions.

Real disagreements. Not small ones.

And his answer isn’t … figure out who’s right and make the other side comply.

His answer is - don’t let what you eat destroy someone who Christ died for.

And that should really get our attention.

Those that we draw lines against …Christ died for them.

And if we’re not careful, we can get caught up in things that really do not matter … as the world watches … and walks away.

We’ve Forgotten What We’re For

Now, v. 6:

Romans 15:6 CSB

6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.

One mind. One voice.

This is the goal. Not that it is not:

agreement on every point.

identical conclusions on every passage.

It is: one mind about Christ. One voice proclaiming Him.

When we become fragmented and fractured:

God is not glorified

The world doesn’t see Jesus … they see us.

And we don’t always give them much to look at.

And really, it’s not about us anyway.

Back to v. 7:

Romans 15:7 CSB

7 Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God.

Note how our welcoming each other is actually an act of worship.

A refusal to welcome someone Christ has welcomed isn’t just unkind, it actively robs God of glory.

This passage teaches us that unity is not an internal church matter. It is a witness.

We are one - the world sees something they cannot explain apart from God.

When we are divided - they walk away confirmed in their suspicion that this whole thing is just a human institution fighting over turf.

John 17:21 CSB

21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.

Our unity .. or lack of it …is an evangelistic issue.

So what we have here in Romans 15:6-7 is a powerful structure.

verse 6 tells us the goal: that we glorify God with one mind and one voice.

Then verse 7 gives us the means - welcome one another.

Thus the structure is: welcome → unity → glory to God.

Which menas if you break the chain at the first link, if you refuse the welcome, the whole thing collapses.

God doesn’t get the glory that unity was designed to produce.

Remember:

When Christ welcomed you, he was making an investment - not just in you, but in what your life joined to others would produce for His Father’s glory.

Think about what it cost Jesus to welcome you.

The garden.

The arrest.

The trial.

The cross.

That wasn’t just for your benefit.

It was an investment — in waht your life; joined to others, would produce for the Father.

When Christ welcomed that brother you’re struggling with, He made the same investment in Him.

Paid the same price.

Had the same purpose in mind.

When we reject someone He has welcomed, we’re not just being difficult, we’re declaring that His investment in that person wasn’t worth honoring.

We’re interrupting worship that God was meant to receive.

And that’s not just a personality conflict or a preference disagreement…

It is a failure to glorify God.

As We Close...

Remember the dress?

Here’s something most people never knew.

The dress was always blue and black.

That was never actually in question.

Scientists studied it and the answer was settled.

Blue and black … every time.

Now, the people who saw white and gold weren’t actually crazy.

They weren’t stupid or lying.

They were looking at the same image … through different assumptions about the light.

And the assumptions shaped everything they saw.

The truth didn’t change … but how they held it did.

We have truth.

God’s word is settled.

Christ is Lord.

The gospel is real.

blue and black every time.

But we must remember:

truth is not a weapon

it is not a wall

it is not a membership card that lets you in and keeps others out

You hold it … according to Christ Jesus.

He is the standard.

Not our tradition.

Not our tribe.

Christ Jesus, who received you while you were still a mess …

Who went to the cross for the person sitting across the aisle from you

Who prayed, hours before He died, that we would be completely one.

Look again at v. 5:

Romans 15:5 CSB

5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus,

This is a prayer….

Because he knows we cannot manufacture it on our own.

Unity isn’t a program - or a three-step plan.

It is a gift from God of endurance and encouragement …given to people who are humble enough to receive one another the way Christ received them.

Here’s Where We Start:

Look at the person sitting beside you today - the one you disagree with, the one who rubs you the wrong way, the one who does things differently than you…

Ask yourself: Did Christ receive them?

If He did, what right do we have to do anything else?

The truth is settled. Beginning next week, we’ll talk about how we hold it.

We’ll dig into what this actually looks like - where its power comes from, what it costs, and what it produces.

But it starts here …. with a welcome.

A real one.

Romans 15:7 CSB

7 Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God.