As Christians, we serve one Master and that is Jesus Christ. We have one God, and one Holy Spirit. One Bible and one basic calling – to fulfill a ministry of reconciliation as if God were speaking through us. And yet, we find it so confusing, so complicated, and so difficult to achieve – this Unity of Fellowship and Calling.
I am not saying that Unity is easily achieved – it does take work. Many times unity has not been grasped because the means to achieve it has been illusive and has been misunderstood. Unity is not a conformity so that all parties look, act, and speak alike – any more than the unity of marriage is the denial or abdication of one person’s individuality is surrendered to the other.
Unity is achieved by being open to those who are different from us; who have strengths that we do not have but need; who have weakness and lesser abilities that we can assist them with.
Unity is not achieved by arranging those that agree, look alike, and believe the same things to come together in a common voice to overpower or persuade another ‘unified’ group.
Unity is not as if one assembles a flower bed or vase arrangement – putting like flowers and plants together, arranged according to height and color.
Unity is not brought about because of our likeness but because of our differences. We are who we are, as a bride is different from the husband, so is one group different than another – in order to be a part of a union that can reproduce something from the two. To reproduce something from the sum of it’s parts. In a world of individualism and isolationism how glorious could the Body of Christ be if it were to embrace it’s members rather than solely identify them based on secondary identifiers such as denomination, history, and culture?
Unity is more like the creation that God has arranged in any field or forest in the world. When you first walk into the woods you do not see pines on one side, oaks on another, bushes to the left and grasses to the right. No, you see a masterful array of beauty brought about by a single purpose – to be a part of the forest.
We as Christians must arise with our unique giftings and talents, bringing them to the group that calls themselves Christians and desiring not to be arranged according to like attributes but seeking to simply be a part of the Body of Christ.
- Bill NeSmith
