Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The Bible speaks of unity within the church: how Christ prayed for it (John 17:20, 21), how Paul said that Christ's agape will produce it (Eph. 4:13-16), how the very doctrine of God demands it (vss. 2-6). But we have to face reality: churches often have disagreements and divisions, within one denomination and even within one church body.
Even after a literal reading of Genesis 1 and 2, there are powerful voices advocating evolution. There are divisions about ordaining women, about what music to use during church worship services, and on and on. And for many, "the blessed hope" of the soon second coming of Christ is receding into the background, and a materialistic earthly lifestyle is taking its place.
Why does disunion seem to flourish? And how can the church lighten the earth with glory if it is in a divided state? And what can bring the true unity that Christ prayed for?
There is a solution! If God is real and if His Bible is true, it follows that God will bring His people into unity.
What today seems impossible, the Holy Spirit will accomplish. He brought the disunited eleven apostles into unity before the Day of Pentecost. They were "all with one accord in one place" (Acts 2:1). That was "the former rain," and the "latter rain" is promised to be even greater. God cannot use force to accomplish it. For Him to burn down churches or strike them with lightning wouldn't solve the root problem.
Ephesians gives us the solution: for those "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine" is the message of agape (4:14, 15). Such a message tells what Christ accomplished, the pure biblical truth of justification by faith.
Christ has promised solemnly that if He is lifted up on His cross, that is, if His agape is clearly proclaimed, He "will draw all peoples to [Himself]," and that of course is perfect unity (John 12:32). If the leadership of a church that is being fragmented receives the precious message of Christ's righteousness, the miracle of unity is as certain as day follows night.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 24, 1999.
Copyright © 2016 by "Dial Daily Bread."
