The aim of this arti­cle

In the fol­low­ing trea­tise you can learn why we believe and how we under­stand that the uni­ty Jesus was pray­ing for can be real­ized in the Church. What does the uni­ty of Chris­tians con­sist in?—Christians have uni­ty not only in teach­ing but also in the atti­tude and life-ques­tions.

The glo­ry that you have giv­en me I have giv­en to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become per­fect­ly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:22–23)

This prayer of Jesus, the last words he uttered in the midst of his dis­ci­ples, shows us how impor­tant the uni­ty among his dis­ci­ples was for Jesus. The deep, indi­vis­i­ble uni­ty that Jesus had and has with his Father is the stan­dard as well as the source of the uni­ty among his dis­ci­ples. The uni­ty among Chris­tians is the work of the tri­une God. His indi­vis­i­ble nature thus becomes vis­i­ble in the fel­low­ship of his chil­dren.

In his prayer, Jesus asks the Father that the uni­ty among the dis­ci­ples may be realised (John 17:11.17–24) also with those who will lis­ten to their word. They are the Chris­tians of every era (John 17:20–21). This per­fect exam­ple shows that the depth of the uni­ty among the dis­ci­ples has no lim­it, for the exam­ple is the rela­tion­ship between the Father and the Son. In the same way as the Father is one with the Son and the Son is one with the Father, and there is noth­ing that could sep­a­rate them, the dis­ci­ples can be also one through the Son.

This uni­ty exists in real­i­ty as a sign for the world and for the peo­ple who seek the truth (John 17:21c,23b), and is not an unreach­able ide­al.

Jesus was aware of the fact that he prayed for sin­ful peo­ple. How­ev­er, through the act of sal­va­tion the oppor­tu­ni­ty for real uni­ty with each oth­er arose for those who seek the deep­est pos­si­ble uni­ty with the Father. The com­mu­ni­ty with the liv­ing God forms the uni­ty and the bonds of love by Christ and the Spir­it. Uncon­di­tion­al trust, unlim­it­ed love and obe­di­ence, being ready for any sac­ri­fice; these describe the rela­tion­ship of the Son to the Father. This is the way for any fol­low­er of Christ in every time. In the repen­tance, God gives wish for giv­ing all our life into His hands, yield­ing the lead­ing to him and iden­ti­fy­ing with the will of the Father. Accord­ing to the Bible to be one with Christ means also to be one with oth­er Chris­tians. (Acts 2:37–38)

So those who received his word were bap­tized.… (Acts 2:41)

Day by day con­tin­u­ing with one mind in the tem­ple.… (Acts 2:46a, NASB)

Now the full num­ber of those who believed were of one heart and soul.… (Acts 4:32a)

Because these peo­ple seek the fel­low­ship with God and oth­er Chris­tians, God can lead them togeth­er, even if they come from dif­fer­ent back­grounds. God wants every man to repent and He has done and still does every­thing to enable that, but He knows that it must be the per­son­al deci­sion of His free-willed crea­tures.

What Does the Unity Among Christians Consist of?

Teaching

They were con­tin­u­al­ly devot­ing them­selves to the apos­tles’ teach­ing.… (Acts 2:42, NASB)

…they received the word with all eager­ness, exam­in­ing the Scrip­tures dai­ly.… (Acts 17:11b)

And he entered the syn­a­gogue and for three months spoke bold­ly, rea­son­ing and per­suad­ing them about the king­dom of God. But when some became stub­born and con­tin­ued in unbe­lief, speak­ing evil of the Way before the con­gre­ga­tion, he with­drew from them and took the dis­ci­ples with him, rea­son­ing dai­ly in the hall of Tyran­nus. This con­tin­ued for two years, so that all the res­i­dents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. (Acts 19:8–10)

If you put these things before the broth­ers, you will be a good ser­vant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doc­trine that you have fol­lowed. (1 Tim­o­thy 4:6)

But as for you, con­tin­ue in what you have learned and have firm­ly believed, know­ing from whom you learned it and how from child­hood you have been acquaint­ed with the sacred writ­ings, which are able to make you wise for sal­va­tion through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scrip­ture is breathed out by God and prof­itable for teach­ing, for reproof, for cor­rec­tion, and for train­ing in right­eous­ness, that the man of God may be com­plete, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim­o­thy 3:14–17)

These pas­sages illus­trate the impor­tance of get­ting to know the apos­tolic teach­ing, which stems from Christ. The Holy Spir­it leads every Chris­t­ian, and any­one who seeks God to this teach­ing.

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

When the Spir­it of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own author­i­ty, but what­ev­er he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (John 16:13)

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you anoth­er Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spir­it of truth, whom the world can­not receive, because it nei­ther sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16–17)

He is the one who enables the saved believ­ers to reach uni­ty in teach­ing, under­stand­ing and inter­pre­ta­tion of the Word, for it is their desire to “wor­ship the Father in spir­it and truth”. (John 4:23–24 and Philip­pi­ans 2:1–2)

It con­tra­dicts God’s word to think that in essen­tial ques­tions (e.g. the sal­va­tion through Christ, pre­des­ti­na­tion, papal pri­ma­cy, infal­li­bil­i­ty of the pope, etc.) God’s Spir­it would lead open-heart­ed peo­ple who love the truth to dif­fer­ent con­clu­sions. (Eph­esians 4:1–6) God wants every Chris­t­ian to…

…until we all attain to the uni­ty of the faith and of the knowl­edge of the Son of God, to mature man­hood, to the mea­sure of the stature of the full­ness of Christ, so that we may no longer be chil­dren, tossed to and fro by the waves and car­ried about by every wind of doc­trine, by human cun­ning, by crafti­ness in deceit­ful schemes. (Eph­esians 4:13–14)

Diverg­ing from the right teach­ing pre­sent­ed a real dan­ger right from the begin­ning. There­fore Jesus and the apos­tles warned the Chris­tians to be watch­ful and able to dis­tin­guish right from false teach­ings. (1 Corinthi­ans 2:12–15)

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doc­trine. (Titus 2:1)

O Tim­o­thy, guard the deposit entrust­ed to you. Avoid the irrev­er­ent bab­ble and con­tra­dic­tions of what is false­ly called “knowl­edge”¹. (1 Tim­o­thy 6:20)

You, how­ev­er, have fol­lowed my teach­ing, my con­duct, my aim in life.… (2 Tim­o­thy 3:10a)

If any­one teach­es a dif­fer­ent doc­trine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teach­ing that accords with god­li­ness, he is puffed up with con­ceit and under­stands noth­ing.… (1 Tim­o­thy 6:3–4a)

…hav­ing the appear­ance of god­li­ness, but deny­ing its pow­er. Avoid such peo­ple. (2 Tim­o­thy 3:5)

The recog­ni­tion of the sig­nif­i­cance of uni­ty can be found both in the Old Tes­ta­ment and among the eccle­si­as­ti­cal writ­ings of the first cen­turies.

Behold, how good and pleas­ant it is when broth­ers dwell in uni­ty! It is like the pre­cious oil on the head, run­ning down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, run­ning down on the col­lar of his robes! It is like the dew of Her­mon, which falls on the moun­tains of Zion! For there the Lord has com­mand­ed the bless­ing, life for ever­more. (Psalm 133)

Hear now then con­cern­ing the stones that are in the build­ing. The square and white stones which agree exact­ly in their joints, are the apos­tles, and bish­ops, and doc­tors, and min­is­ters, who through the mer­cy of God have come in, and gov­erned, and taught and min­is­tered holily and mod­est­ly to the elect of God, both they that have fall­en asleep, and which yet remain; and have always agreed with them, and have had peace with­in them­selves, and have heard each oth­er. For which cause their joints exact­ly meet togeth­er in the build­ing of the tow­er. (The Shep­herd of Hermas—III. Vision 51–53)

The Attitude, Life-Questions

…com­plete my joy by being of the same mind, hav­ing the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. (Philip­pi­ans 2:2)

Broth­ers, join in imi­tat­ing me, and keep your eyes on those who walk accord­ing to the exam­ple you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as ene­mies of the cross of Christ. (Philip­pi­ans 3:17–18)

I urge you, then, be imi­ta­tors of me. That is why I sent you Tim­o­thy, my beloved and faith­ful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them every­where in every church. (1 Corinthi­ans 4:16–17)

I there­fore, a pris­on­er for the Lord, urge you to walk in a man­ner wor­thy of the call­ing to which you have been called, with all humil­i­ty and gen­tle­ness, with patience, bear­ing with one anoth­er in love, eager to main­tain the uni­ty of the Spir­it in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one bap­tism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph­esians 4:1–6)

May the God of endurance and encour­age­ment grant you to live in such har­mo­ny with one anoth­er, in accord with Christ Jesus, that togeth­er you may with one voice glo­ri­fy the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5–6)

That does not mean uni­for­mi­ty, it rather express­es that each of the broth­ers endeav­our to build up the com­mu­ni­ty, the body of Christ accord­ing to his own gifts and abil­i­ties. (1 Corinthi­ans 12:4,13 and Eph­esians 4:16) Each of the mem­bers is equal­ly impor­tant. (1 Corinthi­ans 12:14–27)

The Bible Does Not Distinguish Between Theory and Practice

You, how­ev­er, have fol­lowed my teach­ing, my con­duct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my stead­fast­ness.… (2 Tim­o­thy 3:10)

There­fore be imi­ta­tors of God, as beloved chil­dren. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave him­self up for us.… (Eph­esians 5:1–2a)

By this all peo­ple will know that you are my dis­ci­ples, if you have love for one anoth­er. (John 13:35)

1. The Greek word used here for knowl­edge is gno­sis which is also the name of a false doc­trine which Paul alludes to here. ↩