The Church Today In Its Ideas and Ideals of Unity

The Church Today In Its Ideas and Ideals of Unity THE CHURCH TODAY IN ITS IDEAS AND IDEALS OF UNITY
ERNEST BEAM

There cannot be a unity that is fraught with blessing until we all come to have that love of which I spoke yesterday, or which is promotive of that love. Jesus made those twelve, excepting only him who had a demon, into one because he was love at work and he finally brought them to the perfections of love. In this school of Christ with this little company is the whole story declared.

Ideal Of Unity In Apostolic Times
It is easy to tell what the idea of unity was in the early church. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12). That means this: That just as the hand and the foot and the eye are all joined together and make but one entity that is exactly what the Lord wants in his church. He desires just one church visibly and invisibly—organically and inorganically. “And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body.” (1 Corinthians 12:19-20). There is nothing about this idea difficult to understand however so diffi-cult may be the realization of it.

Hear Paul further, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6) We do not find it difficult to believe there is one God, only one Christ and only one Holy Spirit. But it were as proper to speak of a multiplicity of gods, of two Christs or of two Holy Spirits as to speak of two bodies—a multiplicity of churches. Many gods of the people of heathenism which called forth the Jewish nation to cry, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God,” were not more subversive of the ways of the Lord than is the multiplicity of churches today subversive of it. Oneness with God of old was the truth of his presence and oneness in these verities today is still necessary to His presence.

Negatively Stated
Paul also makes plain the truth of one church by this: “Every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:12-13). And note also First Corinthians, third chapter, of the same matter. Certain it is the same Paul who forbade them to be Pauline-Christians and Appollosian-Christ- ians and Cephasite-Christians would likewise forbid that there be Baptist-Christians, Methodist-Christians, and Presby- terian-Christians. The idea in that early church was for a unity which is abundantly illustrated by the human body- many members but one body. In Matthew 28:18; Matthew 28:20 Jesus says, “All power (authority) is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” There can be no such thing as a church of Christ without Christ being the head thereof. He is given “to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body.” (Ephesians 1:22-23). But Paul expressly declares—and he had authority to declare it—that of any religious group heading up in Christ that the same must be one body. And to end all argument he points out certain divisions of that time exactly like those divisions we see in Christendom today, except they had inspired leaders but these are uninspired, and Paul condemns those divisions. This is enough to end the matter clearly and properly for all who are governed by the word of God. The idea of unity in that early church is just the idea you see in your own physical body. There are many members, but one body.

Ideas Today
There are two ideas today respecting unity that are equally hurtful. I heard the first one presented by Dean Rieber of the University of California at Los Angeles. This man is highly intellectual, an instructor in logic and philosophy, and has mastered his subjects. But one day he was teaching us how to reason. Among other things he cited the fact that astronomers once believed the motion of the planets formed a perfect circle. It was later discovered that planets do not move in a perfect circle but what is known in geometry as an ellipse is the figure they make in their movement. The movement in the circumference of a circle is always eqi-distant from the center at any given point. Therefore any segment of the circle may be taken and put down upon any other segment of that same circle and the two are as one. They harmonize exactly. But with the ellipse the movement is not always the same distance from the center. It is egg-shaped. You can therefore take a segment out of an ellipse and put it down upon another segment of the same figure and they do not always harnonize. Yet placed together in the proper arrangement the various segments of an ellipse will, of course, represent one perfect and complete path of movement.

“Now,” said Professor Rieber, “I want to tell you what radical differences came in my reasoning when I discovered these truths. I used to believe there should be one church. I was against all religious parties. I believed it out of harmony with the motion everywhere extant in the universe. If planets moved in perfect circles and any segment of the same circle completely harmonized with every other segment I believed that the belief of individuals who follow Christ should be also exactly alike. I was against so many church organizations. But when I thought of the ellipse and saw that in truth prefect motion does not consist of always remaining exactly the same distance from the center, I thought, ‘I have learned something.’ In perfect motion the segments of the figure formed do not all harmonize. They are different. And yet they blend into a perfect figure. Then I said, ‘Churches should be like that.’ I therefore am happy when I see a new catholic edifice. I am glad likewise when I see a salvation army chapel going up. I am just as glad to see other churches prosper. Notwithstanding each emphasizes some truth that the other does not they yet are a unity and represent the full expression of Christ to the world.” So did the Dean deliver himself.

Now, what do you say to that? Doubtless he has something to give us and we have something to give him. The Dean has discovered a truth but has misplaced that truth I do believe. Let us see......

You can take the segments of the ellipse and put them together and you get one perfect figure. In harmony with the Dean’s illustration suppose he tries to put the more than two hundred sects in Christendom together. Will he get a perfect form of motion? Shall we put the Christian Scientists who takes away the personal Savior and a personal Devil in the same movement with the Christian who believes both are as certainly beings as you and I are beings? Do these views complement each other? Do they not rather contradict each other and set each at naught in proportion to the success of each? The Catholic submits to his papa (pope) and all protestantism goes for teaching everyone away from such submission. Again, do these complement each other or contradict? Are they after all but parts of the same harmonious whole? If so what would disharmony be? The modernist goes for subjective reality and virtually makes his own experience the test of his religion. But Christians go for objective and authoritative reality. Are they the complements of each other or the contradictories? To ask these questions is to answer them. A few years ago it was argued quite strongly that Congress and not the Supreme Court should have the supreme voice in determining the constitutionality of laws. Congress, about that time, was talking about a great many things, agreeing upon nothing, and disgusting many observers. A cartoonist in a large daily out west gave his idea of the proposal. He showed the old ship of state in the form of an automobile. There were ninety six senators in that automobile running the old ship of state. And every senator had a steering wheel! The wheels on that old car were going every direction without going any where. There is the Dean’s picture of perfect harmony as he himself would learn if he tried to put the various religious parties of this day together as one machine. No apostle ever contemplated such an arrangement when they spoke of “one body” for no physical body ever yet existed with the contradictions and disharmonies he would have to have to represent these sects. The Dean Had A Good Illustration
But Dean Rieber had a good illustration all the same. It serves well to get at the popular idea concerning unity. I had rather say it serves to show forth the idea that was current. Hundreds of people have come to see the fallacy of trying to pass off divisions by saying, we are all one at heart. We are all going to the same place.” The automobile with the ninety six steering wheels will serve to show every man of reflection that the unity contemplated among Christians was organic and visible and it must be so today. That was the idea in apostolic times and thereunto must we labor today Sin and division is frightfully hurtful. It is terrible. It is infidel made and infidel making. I pray God with all the sincerity of my heart that I may develop myself to where I will not be, on any account, partly responsible for continuing division. We should be one. The whole world order awaits it. The world needs to be a brotherhood. It will never be so in human governments until it is first so in the religious realm. These religious divisions contribute to the loss of millions and billions of dollars and in the loss of millions of lives both now and eternally. This is an awful matter and needs to be studied in the fear of God. Our fellowship is either with God or with Satan. If we are responsible for division among God’s people in any degree we are partners with the demons of terror and destruction everywhere manifest in the world today. Let us get that straight for it is the truth. And that leads me to the truth the Dean almost got hold of. It is a truth we need in our own ranks today and we need it badly. It is true that in the church we do have a harmony of differences as well as likenesses. It is true! That ellipse does suggest for us a most important truth, viz: we are different while we are one.

Take now the human body. Look at the foot. Now look at the eye. If each could talk do you suppose they would speak the same sentiment? Is their outlook the same? Do you not imagine that they would soon set about in all things as one? You have heard of the Negro, the Jew and the man who was neither Negro nor Jew but a rank infidel. They fought side by side through one of the severest engagements of the world war. They were a unit. They won and they lived. They returned to camp for relief and rest after the engagement. There they entered into violent disputations and ended up by striking each other and wounding each other until they all die it They were all a unit while they had their minds possessed of a common cause in a common battle. Yet while they had that unity they at the very same time had all those different views and differences otherwise. It was when the mind came away from the common task and turned back upon themselves that they warred it out to death. And when the hand and the foot and the eye are not possessed of the spirit which constantly they are to serve they too refuse longer to abide with each other but fall away into dust to be used in life where common purposes are once again pursued. While engaged side by side for the good of the person housed in that body they are a harmony of differences controlled wholly by the one purpose of serving the person in that body. They are as much different'1 as they are alike.. Yet they make one harmony, for self is forgotten and the spirit served. In the church we have those same differences—in every church or congregation Christ ever had or ever will have. Take the work of elders, that of deacons, that of the evangelists and the work of the women and of the song leaders, together with that of the teachers. Are all these the same office? No. They were not the same in the early church and if we ever do produce that early church we will learn something by the differences that existed among those spiritual gifts that were given to build up the church. The body has a multiplicity of functions to fulfill. These call for different qualifications. All of the dissimilarities the good Dean found in his ellipse he will find in a full grown church. And like his ellipse he will in a church of one faith be able to put the segments all together and thereby to see harmony of the whole.

Romans the twelfth chapter is fruitful of help at this point. There some were to prophecy, some to serve, some to teach, some to exhort, some to rule. Some like to study prophecy, some are good at showing the differnce between law and gospel, some especially fitted to speak of social life and others fitted for other phases of activity. Whoever thinks he can speak with equal authority in all of these fields is a dullard in the study of both experience and revelation. Whoever thinks that views and opinions and persuasions will always be just alike—just like his—has not the Spirit in himself. There is indeed to be in us all just one Spirit and together we are to have just one Lord. We are together to love him with our whole heart and obey his commandments and serve him. And when we do this we are brothers in Christ notwithstanding our differences in taste, talents, and the special fields of study for which we are fitted. It is as reasonable to expect that a brother who comes to study prophecy long will have some ray of light—some excellency of personality—by which others may be attracted to the one Lord—some excellency, mark you, that the elementary teacher of the word will not have—as reasonable, I say, to expect this as it is to expect that a farmer and a lawyer would be equipped to give forth words of wisdom in different fields. And if I rise up against my brother who is different to me because he has exercised himself in a careful study of one part of God’s word while I have made careful study of another part—and who is there who can be authority in all of it?—I am against Christ, ruled by the spirit of Satan, and am in danger of committing trespass against God that will confine me to the regions of hell. We cannot love God whom we have not seen if we love not our brother whom we have seen. Whether you like it or not, whoever accepts Christ as Lord and gives every evidence he is as anxious to obey him as anyone can be, that man is your brother in Christ (if you are in) and happy are you if you have the Holy Spirit and its first fruit, which is love, and exercise it toward that brother.

Elders In That Early Church
Out of these very considerations in that early church were elders. These men were mature as their very name implies. They must have demonstrated their ability to rear children in the way of the Lord. Here they would learn the differences in their own sons and daughters—radical differences—without finding it easy to deny they were nevertheless all of the same family. These elders were to be perfect—matured—in the ways of Christ. They would come to have that indwelling Spirit and the fruits thereof. They were suited to harmonize and keep in one body all members of the church. But, brothers, what have we done today? We permit our religious journals to give us men— often times young men—who never would be qualified to preside along with other men as elders over one church. But notwithstanding they lack this they nevertheless are turned loose by themselves to manage a whole brotherhood. Such a prerogative was for the Apostles in the early church who were especially equipped of heaven for this work. No such person in that early church was permitted to do as many among us do today. Elders were to preside over the assemblies. Give us good, godly elders, and let all matters come up through them, let them pray, and you will have a different brotherhood on your hands. The guilty will by no means be cleared either—neither the one or the other.

If we will consider well what the New Testament says of unity we will find the human body perfectly illustrates the ideas not only in the harmony of the whole, and of the oneness of purpose in each member, but also that these members are different, while they are one. We need to be joined in perfect judgment relative to this last—this harmony of differences. It will not be difficult for everyone to see this. Then our ideas, so far as I can judge, as to the unity of the church, will be like that of the church in the days of the Apostles. But what shall be the ideals of this unity? The Saviour’s Prayer
The prayer of our Saviour in John the seventeenth chapter is often only partly quoted and improperly set forth. “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, are in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” The words that indicate the ideals of this unity are “as thou, Father, are in me, and 1 in thee, that they also may be one in us.” In that sermon on the mount Jesus stressed the thought of growing up into God completely when he said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” About thirty three times in the New Testament, one writer informs us, perfection is held as the goal of life. The ideal of unity was to present to the world a Christ through his spiritual body— the church—like that Christ that was here in a physical body. This ideal of unity is so essential to its realization. The mere idea of it will never bring it. That early church was told of the ideal and they strove to come to that ideal.

Take as an instance what Christ did for Peter. Peter had no more proper ideal when he first followed Christ than has any carnally minded Christian today. He would prevent Jesus going to Jerusalem to suffer. His ideas were wholy different because his ideals for his Master were so different. So in the matter of authority when the disciples fell to discussing who should be greatest. In the washing of feet. All of these incidents show an ideal that was terribly imperfect. It is noteworthy Christ did not send these disciples into all the world at this time. Finally, Christ said to Peter, “I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not: and when thou are converted strengthen thy brethren.” Peter was not fully converted then. He did believe Jesus to be the Christ but he lacked much of knowing what that Christ was like. So long as he did not know what Christ was like he was unable to get his brethren to see Christ in proper light. Christ was not fully in him nor was he in Christ at that time. Such an apostle, no matter what his ideas of unity were, would never be able to bring his brethren to unity so long as he had this terrifically faulty ideal. Nor can we do it today. Brethren, it takes something more ihan ideas in order to have the unity of the New Testament Church. It takes ideals that reach clear up to the head even Christ.

Acts fifth chapter tells of two, Ananias and Sapphira, who were faulty in their ideals. They lied to the Holy Spirit. Fire from the Lord devoured them. Yet some of us today think we have everything in the church of Christ to bring us to one people in the Lord! Do you suppose we would disfellowship such covetous persons as these? We have the commandment to do it in First Corinthians the fifth chapter and eleventh verse. We must not eat with a covetous person. I have never known of a person to be excluded for covetousness from the church of Christ. It is one thing to have ideas of unity; it is quite another to have the ideals. That church in the days of the apostles had the ideals that the Holy Spirit gave them. And that Holy Spirit took the things of Jesus and showed it to that church. (John 16:14). Uesus insisted he was going to be in them and they in him. That is the kind of unity he prayed for. He did not pray for the oneness of people who have lost the heavenly ideal. He commands in those letters to the seven churches in Asia that instead of oneness there should be separation.

Railers too by that same passage of Scripture in First Corinthians fifth chapter were to be excluded from fellowship. Railing against brethren is so common today I take it many will be surprised to know it is a sin. The New Testament church had an ideal that made railing stand out as sin.
Over against these sins we find repeated statements throughout the apostlic writings speaking of love, humility, forbearance, patience, “above all things have fervently charity among yourselves.” That is Christ in them and they in Christ. That was the ideal whereby unity was to be in the church.

Phariseeism
One is never the same again who enlists in the services of the Christ. He will grow to where he is worthy the association of angels or he will come to be like fallen Babylon, “the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean bird.” He will not stand still. The foulest cruelties in the world have been committed, in the name of religion. That happens when the true ideal is lost. And if that ideal is lost there is nothing to prevent us having strong delusion and coming to show forth the wrath of God in ourselves. The evil of the mind, someone has said, is eror. That of the emotion is suffering. And that of the will is sin. The Pharisees were specialists on the evils of the mind—evils in doctrine. And because they were specialists in that field they thought they knew what sin is. In the realm of the emotions, however, they were so deficient the blessed Lord gave them to severest indictment on record in any language. And the awful truth is, my brethren, when you neglect the ideals of the New Testament, when you do not make its tender feeling and its pure emotion your concern on a par, at least, with matters of doctrine, you are powerless to prevent a reproduction of Phariseeism. Sins find us out.

There never was yet a virtue that could not be turned to error. Every virtue has its companion virtue whereby we are kept from going either to the right or to the left. The Lord never did intend that we could be specialists in doctrine but neglect our hearts. Our vision becomes clouded. We will strain out the gnats but the camel gets by us. That early church had its idealism from heaven. It had doctrine to be sure. It also had a practice—a purity—a zeal, a godly sorrow, a carefulness, a clearing of themselves, an indignation, a fear, a vehement desire—the elements of true repentance—it had these. Those brethren became new creatures. An atmosphere of love, respect for each other, general helpfulness, and condescension prevailed everywhere. It was Christ in them and they in Christ. This is the idealism the church today has lost. Our petty difficulties testify in tongues anyone can hear. Let us see why we have lost that idealism. The Cross Ceases To Be The Method
To maintain the ideals of the New Testament without which the ideas of unity never can be enforced it is necessary to take up the cross and follow Jesus. There is no other way to get this ideal and to keep it. Right today the ideals of the New Testament would cause us to plant churches in every town and community in the United States, and send missionaries to every country in the world, and to take ourselves completely away from the sins of this present evil world. That program can be put through in one generation. It can not be done without the cross. If it is done by the cross you will see a church that has both the ideas and the ideals of New Testament unity. The Lord will pour it out a blessing whereby all people will know the Israel of today as surely as they could tell that one of yesteryears.

There is a difference, brethren, between the cross and burdens and thorns. Everyone in the world today has burdens of some kind. There are thorns possessed by all people too. No one can escape burdens and thorns be he Christian or infidel. But there is one form of suffering we can take up or lay down as we will. That form is the cross. And that is the form that is all but absent. Yet it is the one method that leads home.

Preachers today come to have salaries better than hundreds of persons in the world. They go to a church, preach a couple of years, leave it about as it now is, all the brethren think well of them, they get relatively good pay, and when things begin to drag a little they go to another church and repeat the process. True, if they preach the truth fearlessly there will be some cross in this. But in many cases it is no more than the cross an executive has in his small office. Is this the cross of Christ? Is this the way that leads home? Are these crosses that which marks true discipleship? Catholic priests often have crosses far heavier than these. For the most part I believe these positions are unworthy the name of any cross. None of us would like to disgrace any good work or worker but the abundance of luxuries and equipage is far beyond what many persons in the world have is a sign there is no cross in this. And without that cross the New Testament ideals cannot be. The early church kept its ideals just so long as it kept its cross. . I imagine the demons in hell laugh at ple^s for the unity of God’s church, or among professed Christians, while they behold the easy times of this age.

It would gladden the souls who hdSye passed on if the young people of this age would learn to take the hard and thorny way. When we think of those millions put to death for their Christ; when we consider Paul in those sorrows and cruel wrongs; yea, when we see our dear Lord crucified, do you not feel that our lives today are no sufficient compliment of such beginning? No, the cross is the one and only method. “All things are yours,” says Paul in First Corinthians third chapter. “Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” But we do not want all these experiences. We want the easier way. We are not hurt enough. We do not suffer enough. There is plenty of it to be done. Then would our hearts be tender and once again the ideals of unity in the body of Christ would also be ours.

It is frightful the amount of money we waste annually in evangelistic work. Men are well paid to go to old established congregations and baptize a few converts in addition to the children of the members. And we call this the Lord’s missionary work! I know how easy some of this work is for I have done it myself. I also know the difference between being carried along on the shoulders of the brethren, paid exceedingly high wages, in meetings of this type, and of going into hard places to work and suffer in order to build real Christian characters. Yea, I know the difference that comes in one’s thinking when he bears burdens and when he bears them not. The cross comes when we get into the hard places. There is no cross worthy the name in thia evangelizing all the while with established congregations with' big pay. Whoever would be greatest among us must be the servant of all—not the speaker for all.

Thorns and Snares
“And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you go up out of Egypt, and have brought you into the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: Why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.” (Judges 2:1-3). The Lord’s instruction to Israel was that they should possess all of the land of Canaan. No vineyards nor olive yards, nor hillswer e to be left to other people. All the fruits of the soil they were to bring forth. They were to dispossess all of the enemies of the Lord. And so too did Jesus our Lord intend that our whole body, soul and spirit should be dedicated to his service. Our loves and hates and desires— none of them was to be left for the devil to bring forth fruit. But only the cross could make us to be wholly the Lord’s. Only when we have denied self can we take up the cross. We have not denied many selfish, foolish and hurtful things. Our idealism has not been high enough. Other peoples of the earth have taken much of the ground of the Lord in fervency of spirit in giving, in personal sanctification, in joy through the Holy Spirit, and such, and those peoples are thorns and snares to us. Our conceptions of what the church of the Lord would be like in its fullness is faulty. We have not the tenderness and love to behold it. We hate too many people. And hate blinds us until we walk in darkness. There is a remedy for this*—only one remedy. That remedy is to cease from the way of men and follow the Lord. Study his word anew and purpose to deny self and to take up the cross. Then will we come to have a beauty and a passion which bespeaks both the ideas and the ideals of unity of the New Testament. We can speak with others whose hearts are as good as ours and they will be able to speak to us. We will hear each other. Christ will come to be in us and we in him. The unity for which he prayed will be realized. Then will we know the sweetness of dwelling in his love. Then will we know the victory of his humility. Then will we know the glory of his cross. In us everything will be unified—brought to focal point—by the power of the Holy Spirit for the glorifying of Christ. Outside of us all will be unified too. We will look to the ends of the earth as our field and to the height of the heavens for our fellowship.