Unity and Legitimacy

In Psalm 133, the word says that God commands his blessing when brothers dwell together in unity.  The commanded blessing is, frankly, nothing less than resurrection life.  It is not a small thing.   This is part of the heritage of the church.  It is core to everything the church seeks to experience in her pursuit of the prize.  Jesus was the first born among many brethren, and he has come to lead many sons to glory.   Our belief is that the prize is attainable and that, before it is all said and done, Jesus will have a church that will access all that He accomplished for us. 

Jesus Died for Unity

One of the things Jesus died for is a unified body.  In the same way that He became poor that we might be made rich, so also His body became disjointed that the church might be unified. Through the years I have heard many people say that there will never be complete unity until we get to heaven.  Perhaps they are correct but what is troublesome is the tendency to accept the status quo as inevitable.    Those who take this attitude are basing their convictions on their disappointments with man, not their experience with God.

Apostolic Expectation

Clearly, the apostles not only expected the church to walk in unity but they assumed it was already a reality created by the pattern and accomplishment of Jesus Christ.  It was not something to be obtained, but maintained.  How ironic that the Apostles were urging the church to maintain unity in its infancy and now, 2000 years later many have declared that it will never happen.  It seems that we have matured out of unity instead of growing into it. 

There is one reason for this disintegration of Christian unity and that is because the church has tried to have a life and purpose of its own while being disconnected from the head.  Worldwide the church has attempted to be unified but it has neglected its one and only remedy for its disjointed condition- reconnecting with the Head, Jesus Christ. 

One means to Unity

Unity is a possibility but only by one means.  We will find and express our unity when we get connected to the life source.   To the extent that the church seeks to have life in itself, it will be incapable of being unified.  True unity is based on the extension of the life of Christ expressed through His corporate body.  We share in God’s life as a community and therein we are unified.  So called “unity” based on any other reality is doomed to disintegrate because it is based on man’s achievements and agreements but not God’s.     Even religious agreements about God, i.e. doctrinal creeds, will not hold the church together. 

Jesus said, “…apart from me you can do nothing.”  John 15:5.   As a body cannot function without a head, neither can the church function without Christ.  But in the modern era, the church acts as if this were not so.  When the church seeks to live and direct itself through its own power, it ceases to live.  When the church comes together under any other vision, banner, or distinctive other than expressing the life of God in Christ, it becomes self-promotional and sews the seeds of its own demise. 

Legitimacy apart from…

Pursuing Jesus as the head means seeking him as Lord.  The Church talks a lot about the need for unity.  But then it turns around and seeks its own agenda to cause it to stand out from the rest.    This is a primary source of the church’s problem.  The church is more intent on establishing its legitimacy than being an expression of Jesus.  God is not looking to be impressed.  Jesus did not come into the world to show off or to try to impress God the Father.  He came to do the will of the one who sent Him.  He said that apart from the Father He (Jesus) could do nothing.  In order for the church to come into genuine unity with itself, it must first begin to connect with the Head- Jesus Christ.  In order for the church to experience Jesus as its functioning head, it must die to its own self-importance. 

The need to be special

Every person is born with the desire and even the need to be special.  Every person has a desire to fulfill His or her destiny.  But these pursuits create diversions from the Lord when they become ends in themselves.  The pursuit of self-fulfillment is actually the first temptation offered to man.  As people are led astray from their life in Christ into a pursuit of self-actualization, they move away from the one who would give them life.  Jesus said, “If any man wishes to be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”  When we ignore the course the Lord sets for us by pursuing our own will, we move into the survival of the fittest, which is simply another name for “the law of sin and death.”  This is the root of competition and the search for legitimacy that plagues the Body of Christ and causes it to disintegrate into so much division and brokenness. 

The Root of Competition

One of the reasons that unity is so difficult to attain is because there is such a deep root of competition in the Body.  Everyone has a legitimate need and desire to be significant.  Every person is unique and distinct, but people make a mistake when they measure their significance against someone else’s contribution.   It is interesting that some of the most gifted people are often tormented over this issue of significance.  It they can’t be the best then they won’t even play. 

This scenario is often played out in the church.  Distinctions are coveted and fought over.  Who has the best worship team?  Who has the best preacher?  Who has the nicest building or coolest décor?  Who is bringing in the next great speaker or concert?  Who’s got real revival going in their church?  Where is the place to be this week?  This kind of competitive spirit exists because people still are insecure about their position in Christ.  People want to be distinguished for something more than being in Christ.  People are looking for endorsement based in their own merit.  At the core of the fallen condition is a lust for approval. 

Are you a Superstar?

The church’s search for legitimacy is also exposed by its creation of and addiction to superstars.  The church gives superstar status to its most popular teachers and worship leaders.  Seminary’s hold certain personalities high for emulation by its students.  VIP status is everywhere.  Many in the church either want to be a superstar or hang out with one or at least get to sit on the front row when they come to town.  Why?  Because people seem to think that if they are seen with the right person or they get a prophecy it somehow validates them.  This condition exists in the church as chronically as in the world.  Incidentally, many people choose a church that seems exciting because they draw a certain amount of their own identity from the church they belong to.  But not even an anointed man can give what Christ alone is anointed to give.  When people look to others for validation it leaves them impoverished and still left looking for some way to fill the void.  When the emptiness gets acute, people leave the crowd to face their loneliness once again.  

The Source of Identity

The church must stop and think seriously about where its identity actually comes from.  Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God and who it was who speaks to you… you would ask him and He would give you a drink of living water.”   If the church knew the gift of God…. If we truly began gazing on Jesus we would forget most of what we have been fighting about.  We would stop looking for man’s approval or for our favorite prophet to tell us and everyone else that we are legit.

 

Beholding Christ in One Another

If, however, we are not vulnerable to the Spirit’s work of revealing Christ to us and in us, we will never behold Christ in one another.  John wrote, “Our fellowship is with the Father and with His son Jesus Christ.”  1 John 1:5 Fellowship is a spiritual phenomenon.  It does not happen on a carnal level.  We cannot have direct fellowship with one another and experience what the New Testament writers understood as fellowship.   But when we know each other by the Spirit, look past the carnal issues and see the Spirit of Christ in each other and begin to fellowship with the person revealed to us by the spirit, then we begin to taste what the apostle John was talking about.   

So now let’s go back to the issue of competition.  “But when you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, there you have disorder and evil work.” James 3:15.  Competition is based in our carnal need for recognition of our own accomplishments apart from Christ.  Competition therefore forfeits real fellowship. When a person is trying to establish their significance based in their own performance and then begin to compare themselves with others, they will increasingly find themselves on the outside looking in.  Jesus said, “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory.” John 7:18.  When one is busy seeking his or her own glory then they can no longer receive correction.  Correction is viewed as a threat to their objective to appear approved before men.  This is nothing less than the spirit of Cain who slew His brother because he was jealous of his brother’s legitimacy before God.  This is the spirit of Saul who although he had been told that he had been rejected by God still begged Samuel to honor him before man. 

But there is no competition or comparisons in heaven.  Neither is there any competition in Christ.  Cain thought his issue was with Able.  He was mistaken. It was with God.  Had he fallen on his face and sought genuine relationship with the Father, he could have found favor with the Lord just like Able. 

Jesus offended the Pharisees when He challenged their claims as the rightful heirs of the kingdom and called into question their interpretation of the scriptures.  “Go and learn what this means”, he said, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”  Matthew 9:13.  He then infuriated them by pointing out others who gained legitimacy with God not in the conventional way of rigorously keeping the law but by simple humility and transparency.   (See Luke 18:14)  In the end, the Pharisees did to Jesus what Cain did to Able. 

So where does this lead us?  Sadly the church seeking its own legitimacy apart from God loses all favor with the Lord, disintegrates in factions, and ends up either isolated and self-absorbed or prostituting itself to the world.  Either way the church falls into a pathetic condition of insignificance with both God and man.  God holds the church under judgment; the world holds the church in contempt.

Divine Provision for Unity

The Church talks a lot about the need for unity, but it does not do much to maintain unity.  The church is too busy trying to distinguish itself.  It should instead seek to fulfill the prayer of Jesus.  One would think that Christ high priestly prayer would be a priority.  The prayer of Jesus offers the solution.  “…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.”  Notice that Jesus’ prayer for unity is founded on the church’s ability to be one with the father and the Son. 

Attempts to establish significance and legitimacy based on performance and comparisons of the flesh, are rooted in one’s identity in Adam but not in Christ.  If we are of Christ, then we are all of the same family.  As soon as we start seeking legitimacy outside of Him, it opens Pandora’s box of evil and it reasserts every source of division that was overcome in Christ.   If we were truly fellowshipping with Christ we would not be looking at others with carnal comparatives seeking to establish our legitimacy. 

The church’s lack of unity is no longer excusable.  Jesus prayed, “The glory you gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.”  This is the church’s sufficient resource to be unified together.  If the church abides in Jesus, and partakes of His life, His glory, there is no reason for it not to be unified. 

Beloved, it is time for serious gut check.  What is motivating us?  Are we secure in who we are in Christ?  Are we trying to out-perform one another seeking some kind of legitimacy apart from Christ?  If so, we need to repent and we must do it now.  Very soon, this issue is going to be resolved in the church.  God is going to expose our motives.  Let’s get them on the solid rock of Christ.