For Christians, what does unity look like?

We in the Christian world talk an awful lot about unity.  In fact, I don’t know of any Christian leader who doesn’t consider it important for Christians to come together in Christ to worship, serve and proclaim the Good News of Jesus together as one.  The issue before us, it seems to me, is to decide what that unity is based on and what it’s for.

In Ephesians 2 Paul made clear that Jesus died to bring all people together, especially the Jews and Gentiles who were separated from one another and who were in many ways against one another.  Paul says this:

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” – Ephesians 2:13

In Jesus no one needs to be far off anymore, excluded from God and the salvation He offers us.

“His purpose was to “create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” – Ephesians 2:15-16

Jesus didn’t just come to make us right with God.  He came to also make us right with each other.  If God’s salvation is real it makes us right with God, it reconciles us with each other and it restores our self-image into one that is in line with the image of Jesus.

“For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” – Ephesians 2:18-22

We have one Spirit.  We have the same Spirit.  Now we are members of one family.  We are collectively and individually a temple of the one God, Jesus Christ.

So, if this is what unity is to be like according to Paul, what kinds of things does that mean for us?  Here are a few suggestions I have:

1. No one can or should ever be seen as unworthy of Jesus or too far gone to matter.  If they are unworthy, so are we.  God loves everyone and Jesus died to offer new life to all of us.
2. Every relationship in the Body of Christ is worth fighting to maintain or build up.  Christians can and should model reconciliation and problem solving for the rest of the world.  We have no shortage of conflict and we need to demonstrate that we have the right answer too.
3. We need to get better at putting our agenda below God’s agenda AND the Body’s agenda.  It’s easy for us to think about our agenda being less important than God’s (At least that is our conscious thought.)  However, we need to take this further.  Our agenda and personal preference needs to be secondary to what is more important for the Body, especially the local church we are a part of.
4. Since we have one Spirit and are a part of the one temple of God, we need to cooperate more.  Some churches need to combine ministries and resources more for the collective good of the Kingdom not being concerned about who gets the credit. 
5. Finally, and maybe even more controversially, some churches need to consider totally joining forces in order to maximize their common effort to advance the cause of Jesus in their local communities.  Assuming they are one in the Gospel and their missions are aligned, two churches living as one with greater combined resources and momentum would certainly be a more potent force together than they ever would be separately. 

Now that, I believe, is just beginning to come to terms with what unity looks like.

What do you think?