The Encourager – April 22, 2022 – Unity in Christ

I had a wonderful Easter! The worship service we attended (in person and masks optional) was so uplifting. It was good to ponder the greatest truth of the Christian faith: He is risen! Our singing was especially joyful. God is so good to have provided Jesus Christ as the way to forgiveness and reconciliation with God. By the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we can experience nourishing tastes of heaven in this earthly life.

After the church service, we were blessed to host 12 people for Easter lunch. It’s my practice to invite our sons and any people I know who may be alone or perhaps going through a rough time. The group is a little different each year, depending on who is in town and needing a place to go, but I believe that no Christian should be alone on the greatest holiday of the year.

After everyone had left, I started thinking about the people who came this time. Four of us attend a Presbyterian church together, and two more attend a sister church. We had one person from an independent Charismatic church, another of the Roman Catholic faith, and two who worship at a Messianic Jewish congregation. One Baptist has not gone to church in a while, and the last friend attends a church in Boston. Altogether we had seven churches represented at one celebratory meal!

I can’t help but think that this little assembly was especially blessed. Many of our guests hadn’t met one another before the meal, yet they all got along, thanks to our unity in Christ. At a similar gathering years ago, our friend Greg Smith said, “We’ll be living with these folks in heaven, so we might as well meet them now.” How profound. When we get to heaven, we will not only have the amazing privilege of seeing Jesus face to face, but many thousands of other believers to get to know and appreciate.

Have you ever considered that there are no denominations in heaven?! The Scripture says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” - Acts 16:31 Also, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” - Romans 10:9 So the requirement to get into heaven is faith in Jesus, not membership in a particular church or denomination. Now I’m not saying that membership is unimportant. The Bible is full of encouragement to commit to and grow with a local congregation of believers. There’s also a fair amount of exhortation on the importance of correct doctrine. We strive to know and promote the truth of the gospel as best we can. There is a great value in time-tested statements of faith to remind us of who we are under God and what we believe.

However, it seems to me that so many churches feel that they have a corner on the truth. Some Christians give the impression that their own denomination is superior to others in some way. We must all be aware that our understanding of the Bible may be flawed. In fact, since we aren’t the one omniscient God, it certainly IS flawed! I see the Christian community as a multi-faceted jewel. Maybe the Baptists have a better understanding about one aspect of God, but the Methodists have a better grasp of another facet. To each has been given a measure of grace, and we must use it well to benefit all of Christ’s church.

Meanwhile, let us treat one another with respect and love. Don’t let the acrid polarization which now characterizes our national politics to become your default stance toward other Christians. They are your brothers and sisters in Christ. We can all benefit from associating with those whose perspective might be different. For example, my church small group is currently reading a book that appears to have flaws, since it doesn’t seem to follow the Scripture in every point. Yet, exposure to this book is a good test for mature believers. We want to be like the Bereans, testing everything against God’s word. We are gleaning what we can from this book, focusing on whatever is true, honorable, right, and pure, as Paul exhorts us in Philippians 4:8. The bottom line is that the author of the book believes in the same Jesus as we do, and I feel pretty sure that we’ll meet him in heaven one day. There, all mistakes of interpretation will be corrected, all errors of implication revealed, all sins forgiven. And it will be done with grace.

Let’s be careful not to think too highly of ourselves, but remember the Lord whom we celebrate at Easter. The Bible says, in our relationships with one another, we should have the same mindset as Christ Jesus did. He did not try to preserve His exalted position at God’s right hand, but humbled Himself, becoming a Servant to die on a cross. He is the model of how we are to treat one another, in church and out. Jesus says, “Love one another.”

Paul writes, “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.” - Philippians 2:1-2 Indeed, when Jesus prayed for all believers, He asked for unity. In John 17 we learn that Jesus prayed that we would be one, as He and the Father are one. I am confident that when we love other believers well, especially when we disagree, we are also making Jesus’s joy complete.

I thank God for a little taste of heaven on Easter Sunday!

God is faithful,
j

As always, I welcome your comments below.