In Christ, divisions cease

The Standard March 29, 2025

One defining hallmark of Christian community is unity. For a diverse group of flawed people to converge with such a cohesive bond might seem inexplicable to the unbeliever. Followers of Christ coming together with one mind and one spirit was so important that Jesus, after praying for the disciples there in his presence immediately before his arrest, continued, “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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23

Many outside eyewitnesses to daily interactions within the early church saw something remarkable. Michael Green, a British theologian, Anglican priest, Christian apologist and prolific author described this in his 1970 book Evangelism in the Early Church.  “If the ethics of the Christians were not in theory greatly different from the best of Stoic and Jewish teaching, in practice they were, and they were inspired and ennobled by a new motivating force, which the Christians claimed was none other than the Spirit of this gracious God active within their lives. They made the grace of God credible by a society of love and mutual care which astonished the pagans and was recognized as something entirely new. It lent persuasiveness to their claim that the New Age had dawned in Christ.”

The early Christians demonstrated how to take the words of Jesus and the Apostle Paul to heart. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4: 1-5

At Christmas we sing the words of an ancient Advent hymn, translated by John Mason Neale. “O come, O King of nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind. Bid all our sad divisions cease, and be yourself our King of Peace.” Come, Lord Jesus. Let it be so.