The way forward, part 1: The shape of the problem

"For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power." (1 Cor 4:20)




Now is the time to seek unity

When Christ prayed that we all would be one, he told us how to do it. Love for one another, of the same kind he showed toward us, will create visible unity in the church. He links these two things as cause and effect. There are many ways to resist this challenging calling, but the fact remains: Love is what will bring us to the unity he desired when he prayed that we all would be one.

It is high time we took up the challenge. The present situation in the church world brings urgency to the problem of disunity. In the formerly Christian West, the faith is in crisis. The tenor of the culture has turned against us; intellectuals claim that Christianity is actually a form of oppression, or that understanding science makes faith unnecessary. Fashionable opinion scorns churchgoing as outmoded and stupid. Within some Protestant churches, doctrines have arisen that are shameful in light of traditional sexual ethics. Catholicism has publically maintained traditional ethics, but its scandals in private have become too great conveniently to be ignored any longer.

A new strain of theology has come in among us that seems to honor the spirit of the age more than the spirit of God. Those practicing it think of it as new freedom to question and explore and to put forth new thinking that is appropriate to the times. Those watching through the lens of scripture as traditionally it has been understood are simply appalled.

But something strangely encouraging is happening, at the same time the churches are falling apart. Spiritually-minded believers in the various separated denominations are seeing that they have much in common with like-minded believers in other denominations. They are alike concerned about decadence and deviancy within their churches. They feel they have more in common with one another than with ungodly elements in their own denominations. It is as if, crawling out of the wreckage of Western civilization and of their dysfunctional churches, spiritual believers are seeing and recognizing one another, not as foes in centuries-old disputes over dogma, but seeing with fresh eyes.

So let us now make a beginning toward unity, rallying around the first principles of the faith. Let us love one another and do it across denominational boundaries. We will be in a better position to endure the present difficulties if we work together and we will honor Christ's call for unity.

It may be that the theologians' goal of full intercommunion will elude us for a long time to come. There are many theological details to sort out. No matter; we can work for now on spiritual unity and common purpose and let the theologians work out the rest when they catch up to us. I say this in the sense of the worldly bon mot that says it is easier to obtain forgiveness than permission. When they are confronted with spiritual and functional unity, our theologians will have no choice but to find justifications for what has happened, just as they have spent past centuries justifying divisions.

As for the self-serving and dysfunctional denominations that have placed worldly values ahead of the received gospel, I expect them to fade into obscurity or to disappear. The world they tried to appease does not value them, for by conforming the church to the world, they ensured that they have nothing novel to say. If the message inside the church recapitulates the values and worldview that prevail outside, why would anyone go in?

Hurdling the obstacles

Coming to grips with the New Commandment

There are many obstacles to unity. Perhaps the most frequent one is that we do not take Christ's New Commandment in the right way. He said he was giving us a new commandment, that we love one another as he had loved us in his incarnation. This would lead the world to recognize us as one in faith and to know the Father had sent Jesus. It would, moreover, lead us into a higher degree of spiritual communion with one another: to be one as the Son and Father are one.

It is a frequent mistake to conflate that with "Love your neighbor as yourself." It is, though, entirely a new commandment. "Love your neighbor" was not new; it is in the Torah. Jesus emphasized it during his earthly ministry, so it would be by no means new to the apostles. Furthermore, "Love one another as I have loved you" is a different burden with a different standard. Loving your neighbor can mean anyone you interact with, and "as yourself" means not to put your interests ahead of others', giving them the benefit of the doubt, not being severe or conniving but open and fair. Your neighbor, too, is created in God's image.

The New Commandment, though, refers explicitly to fellow Christians, new creations, and the standard here is not how you would be treated if treated well and fairly, but treating others with the endless, self-giving, self-sacrificing love that shows the nature of God in his mercy toward us. The New Commandment addresses a new order of things. It addresses the interactions of people indwelt by the Spirit of God.

The New Commandment says so much and implies so much that we shy away. It is a bigger burden, a higher challenge, and it calls us into a higher degree of interest and involvement in one another's lives than we would otherwise have. By likening our unity to the unity of the Trinity it calls us to a higher spiritual plane than we usually inhabit. Of course we are uncomfortable with what the text says. We might not want to be all that involved with other people. Still, it is the Christian believer's business to confront difficult passages and work to honor them. Even if this one is more challenging than most, it is not unique in calling us to greater things than we would do on our own.

I think the remedy for our reluctance is to understand the New Commandment as Christ's last will and testament (before his death and resurrection) and give it special honor. There is no other teaching that will lead to unity of the kind Christ expressly desires of us: a sign to the world and a higher spirituality for all of us. We should treat it as a matter of first importance, despite the difficulties it raises.

Shedding more light on the New Commandment

The New Testament epistles were written to people who had already heard Jesus' teaching and become believers. They clarify how to be a Christian in day-to-day practice. The gospel of the early church was what Jesus said and did, reflecting his Great Commission to the church, to go and teach others to observe all things he had commanded to his first followers. To be a believer in that era meant that you had heard the gospel in those terms and agreed it was God's message.

If you like, you can simplify my position by saying the gospel books tell us what to observe; the epistles are there to help us understand how. As it happens, the epistles contain direct references and allusions to the New Commandment, as they do to other matters in the gospel.

Here is a passage from Paul that I take to refer indirectly to the New Commandment:

"Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Gal 6:1-10)

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" is the part that I take to be an indirect reference to the New Commandment, for commandment and law are related terms. The old law (of Moses) contained commandments but Christ added one. The idea of doing good especially to the household of faith recognizes the distinction I pointed to above: There is a different standard in how we are to treat fellow Christians.

Some other references in the epistles are not veiled at all:

"If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:20-21)

Many, perhaps all, of the epistles' references to brotherly love, service to fellow Christians, love for the saints, and like topics may be taken to bear on the commandment to love one another. I shall refer to some more of those passages in further installments in this series. The New Testament gives us plenty of instructive examples of how to put the New Commandment to practical use. We are to support one another in material needs and with spiritual help and encouragement.

Moreover, all this was successfully pursued in the New Testament era, if imperfectly. Notice that Paul tells the Thessalonians that they are doing great and then urges them to do better.

"Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. (1 Thes 4:9-12)

In our own era, we have some obstacles the early church did not face. However, these are self-inflicted problems. I cannot think them beyond solution if we are willing to change some of our habitual attitudes.

This article is first in a series. In later installments, I will describe key obstacles to living in love in the contemporary church world. I intend to show that they all admit of solutions. Christ does not call us to do the impossible. Overcoming our separations will be costly, but the cost is in a coinage Christians are accustomed to paying: humility, repentance, and obedience to the scriptures.