The Unity of All Christians

The aim of this article
In the fol­low­ing treat­ise you can learn why we believe and how we under­stand that the unity Jesus was pray­ing for can be real­ised in the Church. What does the unity of Chris­ti­ans con­sist in?—Christians have unity not only in teach­ing but also in the atti­tude and life-questions.

The glory that you have giv­en me I have giv­en to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become per­fectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:22–23)

This pray­er of Jesus, the last words he uttered in the midst of his dis­ciples, shows us how import­ant the unity among his dis­ciples was for Jesus. The deep, indi­vis­ible unity that Jesus had and has with his Fath­er is the stand­ard as well as the source of the unity among his dis­ciples. The unity among Chris­ti­ans is the work of the tri­une God. His indi­vis­ible nature thus becomes vis­ible in the fel­low­ship of his children.

In his pray­er, Jesus asks the Fath­er that the unity among the dis­ciples may be real­ised (John 17:11.17–24) also with those who will listen to their word. They are the Chris­ti­ans of every era (John 17:20–21). This per­fect example shows that the depth of the unity among the dis­ciples has no lim­it, for the example is the rela­tion­ship between the Fath­er and the Son. In the same way as the Fath­er is one with the Son and the Son is one with the Fath­er, and there is noth­ing that could sep­ar­ate them, the dis­ciples can be also one through the Son.

This unity exists in real­ity as a sign for the world and for the people who seek the truth (John 17:21c,23b), and is not an unreach­able ideal.

Jesus was aware of the fact that he prayed for sin­ful people. How­ever, through the act of sal­va­tion the oppor­tun­ity for real unity with each oth­er arose for those who seek the deep­est pos­sible unity with the Fath­er. The com­munity with the liv­ing God forms the unity and the bonds of love by Christ and the Spir­it. Uncon­di­tion­al trust, unlim­ited love and obed­i­ence, being ready for any sac­ri­fice; these describe the rela­tion­ship of the Son to the Fath­er. This is the way for any fol­low­er of Christ in every time. In the repent­ance, God gives wish for giv­ing all our life into His hands, yield­ing the lead­ing to him and identi­fy­ing with the will of the Fath­er. Accord­ing to the Bible to be one with Christ means also to be one with oth­er Chris­ti­ans. (Acts 2:37–38)

So those who received his word were bap­tized…. (Acts 2:41)

Day by day con­tinu­ing with one mind in the temple…. (Acts 2:46a, NASB)

Now the full num­ber of those who believed were of one heart and soul…. (Acts 4:32a)

Because these people seek the fel­low­ship with God and oth­er Chris­ti­ans, God can lead them togeth­er, even if they come from dif­fer­ent back­grounds. God wants every man to repent and He has done and still does everything to enable that, but He knows that it must be the per­son­al decision of His free-willed creatures.

What Does the Unity Among Chris­ti­ans Con­sist of?

Teach­ing

They were con­tinu­ally devot­ing them­selves to the apostles’ teach­ing…. (Acts 2:42, NASB)

…they received the word with all eager­ness, examin­ing the Scrip­tures daily…. (Acts 17:11b)

And he entered the syn­agogue and for three months spoke boldly, reas­on­ing and per­suad­ing them about the king­dom of God. But when some became stub­born and con­tin­ued in unbe­lief, speak­ing evil of the Way before the con­greg­a­tion, he with­drew from them and took the dis­ciples with him, reas­on­ing daily in the hall of Tyr­an­nus. This con­tin­ued for two years, so that all the res­id­ents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. (Acts 19:8–10)

If you put these things before the broth­ers, you will be a good ser­vant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doc­trine that you have fol­lowed. (1 Timothy 4:6)

But as for you, con­tin­ue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, know­ing from whom you learned it and how from child­hood you have been acquain­ted with the sac­red writ­ings, which are able to make you wise for sal­va­tion through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scrip­ture is breathed out by God and prof­it­able for teach­ing, for reproof, for cor­rec­tion, and for train­ing in right­eous­ness, that the man of God may be com­plete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

These pas­sages illus­trate the import­ance of get­ting to know the apostol­ic teach­ing, which stems from Christ. The Holy Spir­it leads every Chris­ti­an, and any­one who seeks God to this teaching.

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

When the Spir­it of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own author­ity, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (John 16:13)

And I will ask the Fath­er, and he will give you anoth­er Help­er, to be with you for ever, even the Spir­it of truth, whom the world can­not receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16–17)

He is the one who enables the saved believ­ers to reach unity in teach­ing, under­stand­ing and inter­pret­a­tion of the Word, for it is their desire to “wor­ship the Fath­er in spir­it and truth”. (John 4:23–24 and Phil­ip­pi­ans 2:1–2)

It con­tra­dicts God’s word to think that in essen­tial ques­tions (e.g. the sal­va­tion through Christ, pre­des­tin­a­tion, pap­al primacy, infal­lib­il­ity of the pope, etc.) God’s Spir­it would lead open-hearted people who love the truth to dif­fer­ent con­clu­sions. (Eph­esians 4:1–6) God wants every Chris­ti­an to…

…until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the know­ledge of the Son of God, to mature man­hood, to the meas­ure of the stature of the full­ness of Christ, so that we may no longer be chil­dren, tossed to and fro by the waves and car­ried about by every wind of doc­trine, by human cun­ning, by craft­i­ness in deceit­ful schemes. (Eph­esians 4:13–14)

Diver­ging from the right teach­ing presen­ted a real danger right from the begin­ning. There­fore Jesus and the apostles warned the Chris­ti­ans to be watch­ful and able to dis­tin­guish right from false teach­ings. (1 Cor­inthi­ans 2:12–15)

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doc­trine. (Tit­us 2:1)

O Timothy, guard the depos­it entrus­ted to you. Avoid the irrev­er­ent babble and con­tra­dic­tions of what is falsely called “know­ledge”^[1]. (1 Timothy 6:20)

You, how­ever, have fol­lowed my teach­ing, my con­duct, my aim in life…. (2 Timothy 3:10a)

If any­one teaches a dif­fer­ent doc­trine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teach­ing that accords with god­li­ness, he is puffed up with con­ceit and under­stands noth­ing…. (1 Timothy 6:3–4a)

…hav­ing the appear­ance of god­li­ness, but deny­ing its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:5)

The recog­ni­tion of the sig­ni­fic­ance of unity can be found both in the Old Test­a­ment and among the eccle­si­ast­ic­al writ­ings of the first centuries.

Hear now then con­cern­ing the stones that are in the build­ing. The square and white stones which agree exactly in their joints, are the apostles, and bish­ops, and doc­tors, and min­is­ters, who through the mercy of God have come in, and gov­erned, and taught and min­istered holily and mod­estly to the elect of God, both they that have fallen asleep, and which yet remain; and have always agreed with them, and have had peace with­in them­selves, and have heard each oth­er. For which cause their joints exactly meet togeth­er in the build­ing of the tower. (The Shep­herd of Hermas—III. Vis­ion 51–53)

The Atti­tude, Life-Questions

…com­plete my joy by being of the same mind, hav­ing the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. (Phil­ip­pi­ans 2:2)

Broth­ers, join in imit­at­ing me, and keep your eyes on those who walk accord­ing to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. (Phil­ip­pi­ans 3:17–18)

I urge you, then, be imit­at­ors of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faith­ful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them every­where in every church. (1 Cor­inthi­ans 4:16–17)

I there­fore, a pris­on­er for the Lord, urge you to walk in a man­ner worthy of the call­ing to which you have been called, with all humil­ity and gen­tle­ness, with patience, bear­ing with one anoth­er in love, eager to main­tain the unity of the Spir­it in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one bap­tism, one God and Fath­er of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph­esians 4:1–6)

May the God of endur­ance and encour­age­ment grant you to live in such har­mony with one anoth­er, in accord with Christ Jesus, that togeth­er you may with one voice glor­i­fy the God and Fath­er of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5–6)

That does not mean uni­form­ity, it rather expresses that each of the broth­ers endeav­our to build up the com­munity, the body of Christ accord­ing to his own gifts and abil­it­ies. (1 Cor­inthi­ans 12:4,13 and Eph­esians 4:16) Each of the mem­bers is equally import­ant. (1 Cor­inthi­ans 12:14–27)

The Bible Does Not Dis­tin­guish Between The­ory and Practice

You, how­ever, have fol­lowed my teach­ing, my con­duct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my stead­fast­ness…. (2 Timothy 3:10)

There­fore be imit­at­ors of God, as beloved chil­dren. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave him­self up for us…. (Eph­esians 5:1–2a)

By this all people will know that you are my dis­ciples, if you have love for one anoth­er. (John 13:35)