How to Keep Unity

Introduction

I played on the high school basketball team. I was the best bench warmer they had. My playing time was limited only by my inability to play well consistently. We had some good players. There were times that some of these players showed basketball brilliance. Unfortunately, to do that consistently through a whole game was rare. Individually, our players were more than adequate. Dwayne had beautiful form for his jump shot. Kenny was just a massive human being. He took up a lot of space and didn’t have to jump well, no one could get around him. Mike handled the ball well. He was smart, insightful and knew what play to call at the right time. Ricky was athletic. He could jump, shoot, dribble and was fast. We had all the right players to do well. But we didn’t. Why? Disunity. Our coach knew the plays. Knew the players. Didn’t know how to bring a team together.

Many of our plays required a weave in order to get a man open for an easy shot. When opposing teams played zone, we had an offense that focused on getting to the creases of the zone, pulling two players to defend and quick dump down to another player for an easier shot. The offense worked except instead of working together, each player was more concerned about scoring. Once Ricky got the ball, he was going to shoot even if the play wasn’t for him. Dwayne loved the long shot. Pretty when went in. It didn’t go in enough. Kenny timid. Played hard at times and at other times eased up. Mike got the play going and rarely touched it again. Disunity.

Unity matters. It matters in sports; it matters in business and it matters in the church. As God’s people our disharmony reflects badly on God. Our unity makes God look good. We know how much God values unity. In John 17, Jesus on the night he was betrayed prayed for unity for all of his disciples. Paul in Ephesians 2 says that by the cross Jesus has broken down the wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles in order to bring about unity and peace. In Ephesians 3:10, Paul says that our unity demonstrates the wisdom of God to the unseen forces in the heavenly realms. Unity matters to God. Today we start with unity. Paul is going to tell us how unity is to be maintained. Let’s learn.

The Seven Ones

There are seven ones mentioned in 4:1-6. The number seven would have been significant to the Jewish readers illustrating perfection or completeness. To the Gentiles the number seven would not have been as significant but the items would have. Each item was designed to reveal that both Jews and Gentiles engaged in the same things.

One Body — the church

One Spirit — the Holy Spirit of whom they all had been sealed

One hope — the kingdom to come in Christ

One Lord — they had all expressed faith in Jesus

One Faith — they all had submitted to the same teaching and had the same trust

One Baptism — all had been immersed

One God — they all worshiped the God who was creator, sustainer, and all powerful.

All have participated, engaged, and accepted the same things. Paul is not being exhaustive about the elements of unity but when viewed as a whole, these elements bring people of different backgrounds, languages, cultures, interests together into the church. Paul then uses two metaphors to capture how this unity works. The first is a building and the second is a body. Both metaphors allow us to see how unity functions.

Paul says in order for a building to be constructed or a body to function, there have to be different parts. These parts have purpose. Some of the parts are more visible than others. For instance, prophets, apostles, evangelists, shepherds and teachers are more visible and whose function is to prepare the rest of the building to serve. On the other hand (vs.16) the function of unseen yet vital body parts help to hold the body together allowing for the body to mature in Christ. Look at the walls of this building. You see the block, the wood, the beams and the brick. Do you also see the mortar that allows the blocks and bricks to function as they are designed? Do you see the nails that hold the wood to the ceiling? Do you see the wires that carry electricity for the lights? Which is more important the wires or the lights?

You see a body. You see my hand. I move my thumb to touch to my little finger. Do you see the ligaments and muscle that allow for that function? Which is more important the thumb or the ligament and muscle? We understand that a building and body functions when both the seen and unseen work together. Both the seen and the unseen are equally important. The building and the body function when there is unity. Verse 13, we are working together to reach unity in the faith and to become mature. Verses 15-16, we are being built up in love in order to grow up into Christ.

How Unity Is Maintained

All of this is good. So how do we do that? How do we practice unity? Let’s go back to verse 7. Paul is appealing to the individual. All of the prior explanation was designed to point out the group idea. Jews and Gentiles coming together into one new group. But verse 7 is clear that each person has a role to play in maintaining the unity that the Spirit of God has given (v. 3). So how does each individual person do that?

V. 1, Paul begins by stating that based on all that God through Christ with the power of the Holy Spirit has done, we are to “walk” or live life a certain way. When we live life this way, we will maintain the unity that the Spirit has given us. We have been called to leave behind the way the world thinks. We have been called to live as citizens of a new kingdom and citizens of this new kingdom “walk” in new ways. Paul gives four ways to live that reflect this calling. All four of these will be fleshed out later but all four attitudes need to be present in order for the calling from God to be valid.

Be humble. This word for humble is used only 8 times in the Bible but in 1st century Greek documents it is always negative. To the Jews this word finds its history in the Old Testament and would have been accepted as part of the norm. But for the Gentiles this was a word that would have created real dissonance. The word is a compound word and it means lowly mind. This word was used to describe slaves, servants, prisoners. One would never choose this. God’s people do. God’s people choose to be lowly in mind. Written by a prisoner who for the sake of the gospel and for his immense gratitude for God’s grace, taking the position of lowliness. It is not to see the self as less than others. It is to recognize that as a fallen human being only God’s grace rescued us from death and moved us into life. We cannot boast. We recognize that only thing that matters is that God’s wisdom is seen.

Be gentle. Closely aligned with humility is the idea of not being overly impressed with one’s self-importance. The word is used relationally. To be polite, meek, gentle with another especially when the very human side of us wants to be something else. If we recognize that our position is only because of what God has done, then we extend gentleness to others who also have life because of what God has done for them.

Be patient. This word means to persist in your convictions even when circumstances make this difficult. It has to do with enduring through provocation. Paul has in mind primarily how we are to treat each other. A spiritual sibling who provokes you, is met in turn with patience. Paul is going to describe that in the next section. We learn to speak with love and care and resist the urge to verbally tee off on someone especially if we think they deserve it. This is not how God’s people deal with provocation. We are patient.

Bear with one another in love. To put it bluntly, it means to put up with people who are annoying. It is one thing to put up with annoying people without doing verbal harm but Paul tells us we put up with this in love. That means God’s people look past the annoying “junk” in a person and figure out how to love just as God has loved you.

People are just people. And the truth of the matter is that sometimes we have a hard time getting along. The basis of our unity is God’s work. We cooperate with him to maintain that which he has given us. To do that we get out of the way. We remember what he has done and quit acting like it is about us. It isn’t. It’s all about God and the people who get on your nerves have been saved by the same blood of Jesus as you have. The people you don’t understand and who annoy us and who provoke us and who push all of our buttons have received from God what you have received from God — LIFE!

There is one more thing that Paul highlights that we are to pay attention to in order to maintain our unity. It is found in verses 13 and 15. Unity in the faith in verse 13 and truth in verse 15. Both suggest the same thing — doctrine matters. What one believes about the seven ones matters. What one believes about Jesus matters. What one believes about how to conduct life as a recipient of God’s grace matters. All of this matters because Paul says we are in the process of growing up. Verse 13 we want to become more like Jesus. Verse 15 we want to grow up into Christ.

When we were children, we were asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?” For most of us, the answer of youth did not result in reality of adulthood. But what the question was designed to do was not to imagine an occupation but to remind the child that there is growing up to be done. Unity matters. Our unity is about revealing God’s wisdom. Our unity requires us to treat each other as God intends. Our unity means that we recognize that we have a lot of growing up to do. It isn’t about becoming something important; it’s about becoming a full grown human being that looks like Jesus. There is no room for boasting. There is no room for believing that the visible parts are more important than the invisible. There is room for us to reaffirm day after day that every fellow believer just like me was dead and is now alive because of the blood of Christ.

My high school basketball team did not have a common purpose. Instead it had players who thought only of themselves and did not see the possibilities if we played with humility, gentleness, patient, and love. Instead the game was played with arrogance and self-centeredness. We didn’t win many games. And even as a team we didn’t look good. As followers of God we only care about how he looks.

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