As Jesus prepared for the end of his time with his disciples on earth, he offered up this prayer to the Father: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (Jn 17:20-21).
That we, as followers of Jesus Christ, be one is the indisputable desire of our Lord. That we instead have been divisive and factious instead is the undeniable fact of history. The Church is divided into denominations, the denominations are divided into factions and the factions are divided into yet smaller, more finely divided groups.
The story is told of one Reformed preacher among the Puritans that said to his wife one day, "I believe that we are the only two truly regenerate people left on this earth and as of late, I am beginning to be suspect of you." True story or not, the sentiment has been carrying the day.
Yet, we know that divisiveness and judgment of one another in Christ is anything but being in Christ. Divisiveness is being "anti-Christ." I am not saying we are the antichrist of Scrioture but I am saying that the antichrist has a foot-hold in Christendom.
But why? Why is this so? How is it that we have fallen so far from the express will of our Lord Jesus Christ? It is so because we have tried to create unity by insisting on conformity in word and deed instead of allowing the transforming power of love seal us together. How do I know this? The Bible tells me so.
I know, historically we have focused on uniformity but look at what Jesus had to about the oneness in John 17:20-21 above: "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one---that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them" (Jn 17:22,26).
Do you see the foundation for being one? One word: LOVE! It is love alone that allow us to see beyond our differences to the common heartbeat for Jesus. When we love someone, we look past the differences being linked by something more powerful uniformity can ever be: a common heart.
This is the draw of a mother to her baby, a man to his wife, the glue of families. People who love each other don't insist that each other walk in lockstep, they are locked together by their deep feelings for one another, by their desire for each other's companionship, by their common love for the Savior.
The two founders of the Nineteenth Century Restoration Movement, Campbell and Stone, could hardly be more different in their approach to spirituality. One left-brain the other right. But Stone once said as he contemplated the flaws of Campbell, "I have thrown over them a blanket of love that I may see them no more." This is the hope of the Church which is the hope of our world coming together in Christ - our nation and indeed our world can learn to be ONE if we can learn to LOVE. Jus' Say'n.
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