My View of Unity

By Thomas V. Weills

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     Matthew 16:18 records that Christ said, "I will build my church." Man continually thinks that he is doing the building. When a man is obedient to the will of God Christ adds him to his church. "And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved (Acts 2:46,47).

     If any person desires to come into the kingdom of Christ he must come as Christ commands. Christ has one way, to be born again, that is, born from above. Man has invented many ways and there are hundreds of different creeds. Each thinks the Lord should accept his concept of what the church should be, but Christ said, "I will build my church." He came to give us the way by which we could enter it. We must lay aside our ideas of what the church should be, turn to Christ, confess his way to be the way, then accept his death in immersion and rise to live a new life. When we do this we are immediately in unity with the Father and Son, because we have been born of the water and of the Spirit.

     Unity by Growth. To maintain that unity we must grow in the new life. We are one in Christ, but we sustain that oneness through mutual growth. We are in a new spiritual realm, as Paul points out in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." The idea of unity thus becomes simple. We enter into Christ and thus become new creatures spiritually. We

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share in fellowship with God and Christ. The life in us is from above. Christ is the one who adds to his church, and he adds none who have not been born into the new life, because his church must be pure and contain only those who have fellowship with the Father and himself. These will grow in grace and in knowledge of the truth.

     Unity by Individuality. On the day of Pentecost those who were obedient to the words of Peter were added to the church. It is the same today. Unity is a personal matter. We do not come into union with Christ in a group, or by forming a great organization. Instead, we enter individually into an organism that already eixsts. Christ made it thus. We are not working for unity. Unity already exists. Our task is to lead people to that which brings them into unity with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and with all of the saints who have already entered.

     But this unity is only maintained by growth, without which it will be lost. We read in Revelation 21:27, "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth." All of man's ideas and ways must be left outside. There must be a complete observance of the New Testament meaning of the word repentance, which is a change of mind to think only the things of Christ. All human doctrines must be left outside when we come into the church. There is no getting together on the ideas of men, but there must be a getting away from them. We become the bride of Christ. And we listen only to him.

     Unity By Spirituality. Many people expect too much of a spiritual life that has just begun. Our union with Christ and the Father is realized as soon as we enter the spiritual life, but it takes growth to enable us to fully appreciate our state, to realize the importance and greatness of the life into which we have entered. A great change has come into our lives, but we are babes, and it takes growth to mature in the spiritual kingdom. Our growth brings an ever-increasing realization of the fellowship with the divine. We are not working toward a unity to be effected sometime in the future. The union must be realized now, because it is the united life that must be increased by growth.

     Unity By Knowledge. We need increasing knowledge of him who has called us to glory and virtue. We cannot attain to all the knowledge and wisdom of God and of Christ when we first enter the family of God, nor can we do much in the kingdom until we have grown in knowledge of the kingdom. That is our great duty. We come into union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit at once, and then proceed to grow in love so the world can see we are in God and Christ and they are in us. In that way we will be building up the kingdom as Christ expects us to do. The world must see that we are in the fellowship or they will not believe. It was for this that Jesus prayed in John, chapter seventeen.

     Unity By Work. The church is Christ's whether it is large or small. The Lord wants more people to come into something which already exists, but unless people become obedient to the gospel, Christ does not add them to his church. We do not work to come nearer and nearer to the true church, we believe, repent, confess, and are born into it by being immersed into the death of Christ, and rising to walk with him in a life which makes us a part of the body of Christ.

     Two mistakes are being constantly made. The first is that many fail to see how simple unity really is. The second is that unity can only be maintained by an ever-increasing growth. In Romans 6:11, Paul reasons that since we have risen with Christ into this union with him, we should reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He also says, "Being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." When we are born into the spiritual kingdom we start out small and weak, but the possibilities are great.

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There is a great work of bearing fruit which needs to be done, and it is not the business of a few, but of all of us. We are only in unity and can only work together effectively when we are in Christ Jesus.

     Editor's Note. Thomas V. Weills, lives at 3350 McGregor Lane, Toledo, Ohio 43623, and he will appreciate hearing from any of our readers.