Restoration Christianity and Christian Unity

In a recent meeting with other pastors, I was asked about the strengths and weaknesses of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. As I considered the question, it became clear to me that our strengths and our weaknesses are the same: our commitment to Jesus and to the Bible, or our attitude toward Jesus and the Bible.*
    
Historically, Restoration Movement Churches are very committed both to following Jesus and taking the Bible seriously. This commitment brings a desire for restoring New Testament Christianity and the vision of Christian unity as depicted in the New Testament. This vision causes us to seek truth in the Scripture so that we are faithful to King Jesus. Although we’ve never done this perfectly, our intent has always been faithfulness to Jesus and revering the Bible as the inspired word of God.
    
At the same time, we have presumably subordinated faithfulness to Jesus to getting the Bible right. Restoring New Testament Christianity requires “rightly dividing the word” (cf. 2 Tim 2:15, KJV). Failure to do so is tantamount to being in error and rejecting the apostolic teaching of Jesus in Scripture. This approach also means that unity requires uniformity, a pursuit that comes at the expense of relationships. Condemnation and disfellowshipping the “errant brother” are used to control others and keep churches within the party lines of sound doctrine, or our unwritten creed.
    
However, loving others is what lies at the heart of Christian living. Jesus himself said, “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other” (John 13:34 CEB). Jesus gave this command after he washed the feet of his disciples, including one disciple who would betray him and another who would deny him. If Jesus had only known how to disfellowship them… Or maybe we still need to learn from Jesus what it means to love each other.
    
Lest I am misunderstood, I do believe we should always seek to follow Jesus, and we should do so by taking Scripture seriously. But as we do so, we must also learn how to love each other, even when we disagree. We will never agree with each other on every matter. 
    
The desire to follow Jesus and take the Bible seriously is honorable. I hope we never lose that desire, but we also need to value loving each other and embodying the oneness (unity) that we already have in Christ. Therefore, our desire for unity must include openness to differing views. In fact, discussing differing views can even sharpen our minds and bring us closer together. Ultimately, very few differences are worth losing family over.
    
Grace is especially necessary on social media where many of us find it easy to respond in an unnecessary, even hurtful, manner. I know from personal experience how social media can be a helpful medium for building connections and friendships; I also know how easy it is to eviscerate someone with one unwise comment, whether we intend to do so or not. 
    
Unity in Christ is not something we can manufacture on our own. Rather, it is a gift of grace from God that we must embrace. Doing so requires love to be fleshed out in the practices of humility, patience, forgiveness and yes, even tolerance of each other even when we disagree.
    
May we all remember that even in our disagreements we must love one another as Jesus loves us!

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*This article was originally written for Common Grounds Unity, published on Saturday, April 3, 2021.

Diversity and the Wisdom of God

I believe in the church. By saying that, I don’t mean that I believe the church is the source of salvation. As believers, our salvation is from Jesus Christ and none other. What I mean  is that I believe the church, particularly in her localized expressions, is the means by which God is now making the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God known. That is, the local church is the vehicle or instrument through which the mission of God advances. This happens as the believers, led by the Holy Spirit, follow Jesus together as a local church.

Most likely we understand that the church participates in the mission of God by the doing of good works and that is indeed so. However, the witness of the church is also seen in who the church is.

Ephesians 3:10 says, “God’s purpose is now to show the rulers and powers in the heavens the many different varieties of his wisdom through the church.” The word that gets translated as “many different varieties” in the Common English Bible is an adjective describing the wisdom of God. It speaks of diversity and multiple dimensions or many sides. In fact, Joseph Thayer defined the word in his lexicon as “marked with a great variety of colors” (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 1889). So God’s wisdom is shown in the fact that the local church is a diverse fellowship and read within the context of Ephesians, the church is a diverse fellowship of reconciled believers living as one unified local body of Christ.

Here is why this matters. Christian unity is not uniformity. As believers, our inclusion in Christ, which is our reconciliation to God and each other, does not eliminate our differences and make us all the same or imply homogeneity is the goal. Yes, we share the same common confession of faith in Jesus Christ but there is much diversity that still exists. The genius of the gospel is that it brings Jews and Gentiles, males and females, as well as slaves and masters all together in Christ (cf. Gal 3:28) who will no longer be defined by their differences, which foster division, but instead love and serve one another  as brothers and sisters belonging to God and each other—the family of God in Christ.

The beauty of the church is seen in her multi-colored expression of God’s accomplishment in Christ. As Christians then, we don’t become color blind as though our racial and ethnic identities have been erased. Our witness as a local church is that we are Blacks and Whites, Latinos and Middle Easterners, etc… who belong to each other and God in Christ.

Now let me ruffle the feathers and talk about the different political leanings found among Christian in America today. The reality is that Christians have different views when it comes to politics and voting. Some will lean left and others right, voting accordingly if they choose to vote. I’m not saying that every political view is right and morally/ethically justified and righteous. So there is a time for discussing the righteousness of our politics (and here I’ll recommend Lee Camp’s latest book Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians, 2020) but we must, it seems, acknowledge the political diversity that exists among Christians today.

What then does this political diversity have to do with Christian witness and the wisdom of God? Well, to begin, we live in a culture that is increasingly divided along political lines. In such a cultural climate, the genius of God’s wisdom might just be shown in the fact that though we may vote differently, we will still love and serve one another as brothers and sisters belonging to God and each other because we have received the grace of God in Christ. Consequently, wherever this increasing political divide leads among America, we will not draw sides based on how we may have voted and become a part of the “us vs. them” cultural divide. Even more importantly, should the cultural divide lead to some sort of active civil war, as Christians we will commit to not taking up arms because our reconciliation in Christ transcends whatever political differences we might have. Instead, as diverse people brought together in Christ, who now share a common confession of Christ with a commitment to following Christ, we will continue accepting one another with love and so maintain the unity of the Spirit as we speak the truth of Christ in love.

This is how we participate in the mission of God. As such participants, God displays his wisdom through our existence and good works to a society that desperately needs to know this wisdom.

Christian Unity and the Embodiment of Love

If you knew you were about die, what would you want to say to those you love the most? What would you want to do? It’s a hypothetical question that doesn’t really need an answer except to say that most of us, if not all, would want to say and do those things that really matter, that are of the utmost importance. And so it seems with Jesus too, on the night before he was crucified.

“Jesus Washes an Apostle’s Feet,” Laurie Olson Lisonbee, 2006.

According to the Gospel of John,  Jesus washes the feet of his disciples in chapter thirteen and then begins addressing his disciples before he retreats into prayer. The foot washing is important because Jesus is offering his disciples an example of the life he is calling them to live. It’s a life of radical love embodied in the virtues of humility and servitude. It is the life Jesus has lived, the way and truth of the gospel, and why he insists that his disciples must love each other as he has loved them (13:34-35; 15:12). 

This life of love embodied in humility and service is the way, truth, and life of Jesus that reflects the gospel, the very Word of God, revealed in Jesus Christ. Compared to the world, this truth is the alternative the disciples are sanctified in (set apart) and sent into the world as witnesses of. This is the reason, Jesus prays in John 17 that his disciples will be one.

        “I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me.” – Jesus Christ, John 17:21

Sanctification and unity point us toward the mission of God (Carson, The Gospel According to John, 566). To be sanctified and sent out as a unified community of disciples is to continue participating in the very mission that God sent Jesus into the world to fulfill.

This is as true today as it was then. Being sanctified is not just a salvation issue and Christian unity is not uniformity achieved in keeping a list of church practices. This is not to suggest that holiness and theology is inconsequential. Some issues, such as the Triune nature of God or Christian marriage, are worthy of our reflection and discernment. But perhaps what matters most is the way we love each other. Our capacity to love one another is what Jesus desires when he prays that we will be one. For in being so one with each other that we will love each other as Christ has loved us, we reflect that love outward to the world around us. That’s a love that draws the rest of the world into the love of God (Gorman, Abide and Go, 124)

This is the truth we all are called to embody, for it signifies that we are united in Jesus Christ as a people known for the very love of God.

One: On Mission with God

This is the prerecorded message that I preached for the Newark Church of Christ this past Sunday. The message, One: On Mission with God, is based on John 17:15-24 and is about the church being sanctified and sent as followers of Jesus united in our participation in the mission of God. The message is also challenges the notion that the basis of Christian unity is based on adhering to a list of dogmas and rules that have often divided churches, hindering their participation in the mission of God.