Shortly before his betrayal and crucifixion, Jesus prayed "I do not pray
for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they
also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me" (John
17:20-21). The Lord prayed for the unity of all those who would believe in him
through the word which would be preached by the apostles. That as Christ and
God were one in nature, doctrine and purpose, the followers of Christ would
also be also be united in like manner.
Despite his prayer, the vast majority of the religious world professing to be
followers of Christ, ignore his will on this matter. It is not even uncommon
to hear someone thanking God for all the different religious groups that exist.
These groups teach different plans of salvation, possess different organizational
structures, and proclaim any number of conflicting doctrines. No wonder the
world is so confused as to what the Bible teaches. Such division is in direct
disobedience to God's will. In 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul states "Now I plead
with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak
the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." The same requirement
is given in Ephesians 4:3-6 and Philippians 2:2. The unity that is required
by God is not the popular notions of "unity in diversity" or "agreeing
to disagree". Unity means oneness, unanimity, to act and think in unison.
Christ's followers are not to be divided.
Christ did not have his apostles preach conflicting messages. In fact, unity
or oneness is an essential feature of New Testament church. For instance, the
church does not have many founders or heads. There is only one founder and head,
Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 1:22). There is only one message that
was delivered by His inspired apostles (Galatians1:8) . That message contains
only one plan of salvation which entails belief (John 3:16, Romans 1:16), repentance
(Luke 13:3, Acts 17:30), confessing Christ (Acts 8:37, Romans 10:10), baptism
into Christ for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38, 22:16, Galatians 3:26-27)
and faithfulness unto death (Revelation 2:10).
Furthermore Christ established only one organizational structure for his church.
In the New Testament we find that the church consists of individual congregations
which are overseen by men called elders (also known as overseers/bishops or
shepherds/pastors). These men exercised oversight only over the local congregation
and were always a plurality (Acts 14:23, 20:28, 1 Peter 5:1-4). To assist the
congregations there were evangelists (see 1&2 Timothy, Titus) who proclaimed
God's word and deacons who ensured that needful things were done (1 Timothy
3:8-13). Finally, we find that congregations followed one pattern of worship.
There were prayers offered up (1 Timothy 2:1), congregational singing (Ephesians
5:19), a message delivered (Acts 20:7), the Lord's supper was taken on the first
day of the week (Acts 20:7) as well as a contribution for the work of the church
(1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
The key to unity is to take God's Word as our only rule and guide. Do what it
says to do, for the reasons it says to do it, without addition, subtraction,
or modification. Our purpose and our plea is therefore for all men to leave
all denominations and be united upon the only right creed, the only creed that
will save - the inspired word of God. Won't you obey the gospel today?