Unity of the Faith
Ephesians 4: 11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
After all this time shouldn’t there be much more agreement between believers as to what the Bible teaches? Shouldn’t we have come to more of a “unity of the faith” and grown up unto a “perfect man”? Shouldn’t we be well past being “tossed to and fro… carried about by every wind of doctrine” by now — after 2000 years?
If you profess to be a “believer” and one who also professes to believe that the Bible is indeed the Word of God, let me ask you a question. Why do so many so-called Christians today and even over the last 2000 years, have so many different beliefs about what the Bible teaches? Is the Bible so difficult and hard to understand that it naturally lends itself to be interpreted or misinterpreted in so many different ways that it becomes of no real effect and nothing but myth to the non-believers making believers look like fools? I have no problem being a fool for Christ’s sake but that’s not what I’m talking about here.
I believe that believers do indeed appear very foolish to the skeptics and is it any wonder when there is so much disunity and disagreement? When we tell the skeptic things like – “Well if you’d just believe then you’d understand” we’d better be ready to face ridicule. I don’t think this is a good way to answer the criticism railed against believers by the skeptics. When they see how varied the beliefs are within so-called Christendom I’m sure we seem to them as hypocrites and their skepticism seems quite justified. And until believers get on the same page why should anyone believe us? Notwithstanding that most will not believe regardless of how much believers agree.
Is it possible for believers to come to the unity of the Faith as Paul, in Ephesians Chapter 4 speaks about? We should already be there since “that which is perfect” has indeed come. We have the completed word of God. But sadly we have not followed Paul’s other commendation in 2 Timothy 2:15,16 to “study…” and “rightly divide the word of truth” and so the Body of Christ has become a laughing stock to a world that is in desperate need of truth.
So how can this be rectified? How can we come to agreement? It’s actually quite simple. It’s so simple most Bible believers can’t see it even though it’s as plain as the nose on their faces.
CONTEXT Is KING
It mostly comes down to the age-old concept of Context-Context-Context! Too often teachers/preachers and others simply pull verses out of their context in order to justify some pet doctrine or teaching. I’ll give you an example that I just hear recently from a well know preacher/author/greek scholar whose initials JM. In an interview he was purporting that 2 Corinthians 5:21 was the “greatest verse in the Bible” and to that, I agree! However, I happen to know that JM is very much what is called a Reformation Theologian and has a particular bias. As he was explaining this verse: 2 Cor. 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” he said something that was very subtle and could be easily missed. He said that Christ had been made sin for everyone who would ever believe. But is that correct?
If we back up a few verses to verse 15 And that he died for all,… and verse 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;…
In verse 15, if Christ died for ALL and in verse 19 God reconciled the WORLD and didn’t count their sins against them would that not mean that in verse 21 that Christ was made sin for all and not just for those who believe? Plus, in 1 John 2:2 he says that Christ was the “propitiation” for our sins (John was speaking to the Jews here) and not for ours only but for the WHOLE WORLD!
There are other reasons as well for the lack of biblical unity. The Lord Jesus said that if the blind lead the blind they will both fall into the ditch and I believe there has been a pandemic, if you will, of willing blindness on the part of those who claim to be spiritual authorities. More on this later.