UNITY OF THE BODY
Alice S. Mooneyhan
“For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body…”
I Cor. 12:13
The unity of the body of believers was made on the day of Pentecost through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, so that others who believed, were added to the Church by the Lord, or were added to the Lord (Acts 2:47).
“…he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (I Cor. 6:17). “There is one body…” (Eph. 4:4). The reason we do not see the unity among God’s people is because all members do not allow Christ, our only and all-sufficient Head to direct them.
Either they are ignorant of the truth, or else they permit others to usurp the headship of Jesus Christ and lead them away after themselves, of whom Paul warned us in Acts 20:29-30: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.”
In writing to the church at Corinth, “with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,” Paul stated: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” – I Cor. 1:10
Is it any wonder then that he warns us in Rom. 16:17: “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”
We do not break the unity of the body of Christ when we judge the evil within the Church and separate from it. On the other hand, it is only by separation from evil that the unity and holiness of the body of Christ is maintained. “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us…Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother” – II Thess. 3:6,15.
