Spirituality Column #808

May 10, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Come Together

By Bob Walters

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” – Paul to the Corinthian church, 1 Corinthians 1:10

Several places in the Bible beseech the Disciples, the early Christians, and all Christians going forward – including up to today and beyond – to be united in mind.

Paul’s note here in 1 Corinthians addresses what he saw as the first and most egregious error of the discombobulated church at Corinth: they were worshiping different “people.”  They were worshiping the various teachings and personages of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and, it seems likely, others as well. 

Everybody has their favorite preacher.  Paul is reminding them to worship Christ.

Jesus asserted forcefully and truthfully in His earthly life that He was the deliverer of God’s gift of salvation, i.e., eternal life to all mankind.  Israel’s leaders were reluctant and regularly hostile to Christ’s unexpected message that their existing Law, traditions, and standing were now not abolished but subsumed by the truth of Jesus Christ.

Jesus knew His message of salvation, faith, grace, forgiveness, and sovereignty would be rejected not just by many Jews but many in the world and nations beyond. 

Jesus also knew that His believers suffering rejection would need to encourage and nurture each other in order to spread His truth.  Jesus prays for it in John 17:20-23, Paul mentions it often, and James, in a different but important spin, warns against “double-mindedness” which happens when we worship more than one thing.

We tend to think first of “unity” in the political sense, whether it is the politics of a church, denomination, family, nation, government, or any imaginable social construct.  This renders one of the easiest concepts in the Bible – the importance of sticking together – nearly impossible to understand, e.g., “Unity? With that bunch of lunatics?”

Our default disagreement position is generally about how things should be done; behaviors, worship, governance, etc.  I submit that the 800-pound gorilla of the Bible’s insistence on unity resides not in how we get along with each other or, in good Christian parlance, “love” each other, but in who we believe Jesus Christ to be.  The correct answer is, “the Son and Word of God, and the life, creativity, light, and truth of God.

Boiling it down, I cite John 1, verses 1-2, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.” That’s Jesus; God incarnate (v14). It doesn’t tell us how to behave; it tells us who to worship.

Notice the power God has given each of us in our minds and creativity, our various talents and aspirations, and our mysterious individual identities that reflect not just the image of the one true God but also the God-intended glory of each human’s uniqueness.  The assembled power we have on Earth in the name of Christ relies on our identifying – correctly – that which is to be worshiped and trusted.  And that’s Jesus.

Pick your priorities … it might be money, work, family, your church, the Bible, politics, any hobby you may have, any preacher you may adore … everything suborns to Jesus Christ.  When people understand that and insist on Christ, unity is achieved.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recently ran across a good line about modern culture and religion: “People worship their work, work at their play, and play at their worship.”