I skipped a lot of verses there between the part about the unity of the Spirit and the unity of the faith. However, the point I'm trying to make stands. We are supposed to be working hard to preserve the unity of the Spirit, but unity of the faith comes from working hard on something other than the unity of the faith.
American churches specialize in trying to have unity of faith. They have statements of faith, classes for new people, Sunday school for children, Bible studies for adults, and systematic theologies for their pastors. Despite their incredible efforts, it is hard to imagine that anyone could be any more unsuccessful at something than American churches are at having unity of faith.
The problem's not a mystery. Unity of faith is the result of doing something else. American churches fail miserably at that something else. Thus, no unity. It would be foolish to expect any other result.
What is that something else? Well, let's look at the part of Ephesians 4 that I skipped:
And he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and somepastors and teachers for the complete furnishing of the saints for the work of ministry and for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all come to the
unity of the faith...
If you've ever heard anyone teach on this passage, then surely you've heard that the Greek of this verse makes it clear that these gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor/teachers—are to equip the saints to do the work of ministry, not for the aforementioned gifted ones to do the work of ministry. I first heard that in an Evangelism Explosion course, and I've heard it dozens of times since. Everyone knows that. Everyone teaches that. Hardly anyone does it.
Of course, how are they supposed to do it? What does a pastor know about the work of ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ? All he's done is go to a Bible school and study hermeneutics, which will provide you no equipping whatsoever for the work of ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ. Shoot, it doesn't even equip you to pay any attention to the Bible, which could be taught in a school, so how is it going to teach you something like building the body of Christ, which could never be learned in any school anywhere.
That was rather a brash statement, so let me back it up. It is obvious from the Bible that pastors were not selected from some distant Bible school. Shoot, it is obvious from the Bible that they weren't called pastors, but elders or overseers. But, since that's not on too many denominations statement of faith, they neglect it in Bible school. I didn't go to Bible school, however, so I'm allowed to pay attention to the Bible, rather than ignoring it for my denomination's statement of faith.
I know I'm being sarcastic enough here to seem very rude. I don't mean to be rude. Please take these words as friendly jibes. However, let me show you how badly our American churches have this whole pastor thing wrong, and you'll probably want to take up the sarcasm yourself!
According to Acts, Paul and Barnabas appointed elders right out of the churches they started (14:23). They didn't mail order a graduate from the apostles' school of the Bible in Jerusalem to come to Greece and Asia Minor and preach sermons every week. This was a lifelong pattern for Paul, and it continued for centuries afterward, until under Constantine the emperor of Rome decided he could appoint elders. They were brought in from outside a lot after that.
So catch this, okay. Paul wrote letters to Timothy and Titus. These letters are known as the "pastoral epistles," because supposedly they're written to pastors (Timothy and Titus). Unbelievable! Do we send people to Bible school for four years so that they can believe such utter nonsense! Did anyone try actually reading those "pastoral epistles"???
Those "pastoral epistles" command those "pastors" to appoint pastors and leave!
In Titus, it's specifically said. Paul says, "For this reason I left you in Crete, so that you should...ordain elders in every city" (Tit. 1:5). Then he tells him in 3:12, "Be diligent to come to me in Nicopolis, for I have decided to winter there."
In Timothy, you have to think a little (a very little) to see it. In Titus 1, Paul follows his exhortation to appoint elders with a list of qualifications for the office. In 1 Timothy 3, he doesn't specifically say that Timothy is to appoint elders (he uses the word overseer there), but he does give Timothy the same list of qualifications that he gave to Titus. What should that tell you? It should tell you that Timothy was not left in Ephesus to pastor, but to appoint elders to pastor, then to move on and see Paul, just like Titus. He follows these qualifications by telling Timothy that he'll be along as soon as possible (1 Tim 3:14). We already know from 1 Thessalonians that Timothy was an apostle (1:1 with 2:6), not a pastor, and apostles appointed elders and moved on. That's what they did. Timothy traveled with Paul, he didn't stick around in Ephesus and pastor. This would be why Paul ends 2 Timothy, where Paul wasn't coming to Timothy as he was in 1 Timothy, by telling him, "Be diligent to come to me before winter."
We're still on the subject of unity. Why is all this important? It is important, because elders should be people who have proven, in the church, that they are able to watch over others and build up the body of Christ. This way, they can do what Ephesians says they are to do, which is train the saints to do the work of ministry and build the body of Christ. This will result in the unity of the faith, says Eph. 4:13. Bible studies will not result in unity of the faith, which we prove every day in America. As usual, the Bible's way is better than our way. Amazing. You'd think we go to Bible school just so that we can get smart enough to figure out ways to make the Bible actually defend our vain traditions, rather than opposing them, as it clearly does if you just read it.
If you read on there in Ephesians, you'll also find that the unity of the faith is completely tied to our growth together. There's no comments in there about us growing as individuals. No, the body of Christ is to be built, and we are to grow up "together" in the knowledge of God into the stature of Christ. This can happen, says 4:16, only "as every part does its share."
So why do our American churches lack unity? We don't have trained pastors (properly "elders") who can equip the saints to do the work of ministry and build the body, and we make no arrangements for every part to do its share. I'll bet, if you're an American Christian, that you think church services build the body of Christ. Nothing could be further from the truth! Do you really see "every part doing its share" on Sunday morning? How about Sunday night? Wednesday night?
No, the body is built on a day to day basis as the saints "encourage one another every day, while it is called today." Ephesians calls it speaking the truth to one another in love. That is only going to happen when our lives become intertwined and we are together daily.
How is that going to happen? It's not like it's common for church members to see each other every day. Well, let's go back to the verse we started with:
"...endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit..."
The Holy Spirit really does shed the love of God abroad in the hearts of his disciples. However, the enemy has created a system designed to shut down that love. A constant diet of meetings and Bible teachings designed to justify a statement of faith and demonize heretics is really quite effective at destroying any unity of the Spirit there might be among the few disciples that find themselves in our American churches.
Let me give you a small statement of faith that flies in the face of most statements of faith in evangelical churches. I'm going to go ahead and go out on a limb, since this statement of faith is only one sentence long, and it's a Bible quote.
Jesus became the author of eternal salvation to all that obey him.
It's a mess, isn't it? Let me see if I can sum all this up. Here's the way it works. We become his disciples by giving our life to him. We forsake everything, take up our cross, and go after him. He saves us and gives us his Holy Spirit. We, filled with love that comes from that Holy Spirit, can't help but be around one another as much as we can. Jesus, the giver of good gifts, provides us with gifted elders who can teach us how to build up the body of Christ, and we all do that together. We all grow together, carefully preserving the unity that the Spirit gives us, never allowing our stupid and ridiculous doctrines, formed by our warped minds that we're supposed to hate, to get in the way of that unity, and encouraging one another on to follow Christ by his Spirit.
What a delightful picture that would be!
However, there's a line in there that might make it seem not delightful to you. I called your mind warped and said you're supposed to hate it. I said our doctrines are stupid and ridiculous. Let me quickly justify that.
First, your mind is part of your soul, and Jesus said only those who hate their souls will keep them to life everlasting (Jn 12:25, where the word for "life" is psuche, soul). Second, sound doctrine includes things like being sober, patient, loving, avoiding much wine, teaching good things, loving your spouse, keeping the house, being a good employee at work, etc. (Tit. 2:1-10).
Sorry, but when I read Tit. 2:1-10, I find it stupid and ridiculous to ask church member to study verses and put them together to in some exact "faith only" doctrine when the Bible says, "You see then that a man is justified by works and not faith only," and to ask church members to explain the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that has been a source of argument among theologians for nigh on 2,000 years! I don't believe in modalism, dear reader, which is the "Jesus only" doctrine, but I do know that Tertullian, "the father of the Trinity," whom I do agree with, said that the majority of the church would always be simple people, and in his day, AD 200 or so, most of those simple people held to modalism (Against Praxeas 3).
Fortunately for Tertullian, who was not an elder, and for the other Christians of his day, they still had elders, appointed by the previous elders, who knew how to equip saints for the work of ministry and who still knew what sound doctrine was. Therefore, those churches enjoyed great unity and proclaimed the Gospel around the whole known world "as if they had but one soul and one and the same heart" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies I:10:2).
I hope my sarcasm hasn't offended you so badly that you can't hear any of this. The things I've written above are drastically important. I hope you will be able to open up your heart and hear them.
Oh, the things written above work. You ought to see the grace, power, and life that God, in his mercy and kindness, has showered on us on Christ's behalf as we have practiced what I have written above. http://www.rosecreekvillage.com/. We really love Ephesians 4.
1 comment:
Oh yeah!!!!
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