In the last two blog entries we have done the work to lay the foundation of discerning God’s specific calling in your life. We have done this by defining some of the general callings of God to His creation. In the first entry, I answered the broadest question to the calling of God; “What is the calling of God for all men everywhere?” If you remember I agreed with the Westminster Divines, that the primary calling of all men everywhere is to know God, and to enjoy and glorify Him forever. Adding to that, it was concluded that the only way to do these is through the atoning work of Christ. Therefore, we see the secondary calling of God for all men everywhere; to be born again of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5-8), repent of their rebellious life, and be reconciled to God through the atoning blood of Jesus.
In the second entry of this series we narrowed our scope to examine the calling of the bride of Jesus Christ. That is all the saints who have submitted to the calling and command to repent and be reconciled through Jesus. In examining The Great Commission, Matthew 28:18-20, I asserted that the call of the body and bride of Christ, every member, is to carry out the commission in our time. In some capacity, we are all called to expand the influence and borders of the Kingdom of God by making disciples of all nations. Finally, I made the bold assertion that the making of disciples is an endeavor of warfare and dominion. As I said in the last entry, the Great Commission instructs us in, and commands us to, carry out spiritual insurrection under the authority of Jesus Christ.
Unified, Under Christ
Now, the question must be addressed, “how do we, as individuals and local assemblies, work together to fulfill this calling of the universal Church?” Of course, Christ has seen fit to equip His bride for this very work. In perfect wisdom, God has ordained offices and roles for governing and leading His church. However, God has also instituted other roles, within different spheres of authority. All of these, ideally, are to work together, unified under Christ, to carry out that great wartime initiative of the Great Commission, with one chief end in mind—subdue creation, bringing it under Christ’s authority, so we might know Him, enjoy Him, and glorify Him forever.
I want to separately examine the God-ordained offices of the assembly of the saints, and the God-given varying roles of the individual Christian throughout this life, because in scripture we have a very clear framework of what God’s calling looks like, and often what it will never look like, for those saints in these various roles and offices. We will begin this study by returning to a passage of scripture which I alluded to in the first part of this series. In that blog I made a tongue-in-cheek jab at modern evangellyism and how their practical interpretation of Ephesians 4:11-12 is to effectively rewrite the scripture altogether. I want to return to this passage, because in it we have a clear exposition of some of the offices of the Church of Jesus Christ.
However, immediately preceding the listing of the offices, and thus callings of God, in the church, we have another very important general calling to the saints in the local assembly. In this case, it is the church of Ephesus, but it may as well be your home church. So, before dealing with the specific calling and equipping of saints to an office of the church, I will examine this general calling of God to each local assembly of saints.
“Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 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
Beginning in Ephesians 4, after he explained his abiding labor of prayer on behalf of the Ephesian saints in the previous chapter, Paul pleads with them to “walk in the manner worthy of the calling with which [they] have been called”. That “calling with which they have been called” in this case, refers to that effectual calling of God that all saints are called with. It is the illustrative ‘wind’ of the Holy Spirit in John 3:8, the effect of regeneration which may only be observed, but never conjured, by man.
This calling does not necessarily inform us of the question we seek to answer. Instead it is the subsequent walking that we ought to pay most attention to for now. Thankfully, Paul next elaborates on how this worthy manner of walking must be characterized, it is humility and gentleness, patience, tolerance in love, etc.
However, the key aim of this worthy manner of walking is this: (v3)“[be] diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” As an exhortation to the whole body of the Ephesian assembly, Paul declares they must be committed to the unity of the body of Christ. He is emphatic of the oneness of the unity of Christ’s bride in verses 4-5. Before we may even consider what a call to personal labor in the church requires, we must get this call to unity right.
The unified Church
Biblical unity, that unity which Paul writes about here, is not the unity of this nebulous hyper-spiritualized idea of what some think to be the invisible church. It is not this near-imaginary thing without any real practical or temporal effects. Neither is it merely this idea of always getting along, getting together for a dinner with your Sunday school class, or playing on the church softball team.
These low, false, unbiblical standards of unity so-called have made the beautiful bond of Christian fidelity into some dollar-bin knock-off, unworthy of comparing to the eternal gift of the original. The unity from the scriptures, is one that weeps and fasts together when a brother is imprisoned for the gospel—you know, like where Paul is when writing this letter. It is a unity that fights in the trenches together, for the gospel and the Kingdom. It is a unity of mind, conviction, and purpose of the entire persons who share in it.
The unified church marches to battle under the banner of Christ, daily. They actually take a stand for the gospel in their communities. Biblical Christian unity, and fidelity, is the assembly of brethren supporting one another in every circumstance. And pardon me dear friend, it looks much less like your buddy making sure that visitor doesn’t sit in your pew at the weekly worship service, and more, perhaps, like sneaking the apostle out of your city before the authorities stone him to death for the message of the gospel (Acts 9:23-25; Acts 17:1-10).
Building Unity
Western evangellyism has thrown away the excellent gifts of God to His Church because they take some effort to break-in and enjoy. We have traded the sweet delight of biblical unity for the cheap counterfeit because it is just so easy to use. Now, we have removed ourselves so far, and for so long, we do not even know how to build back this real biblical unity —and no, Baptist friends, another church potluck really is not the answer. Go ahead and file this disregard of biblical oneness under; ‘things THE CHURCH needs to solemnly repent of’, if there is any room left.
I hope you see that this call to Christian unity is important enough to be noted on our list of callings certainly prescribed by God. So, let us review it one more time, in order:
As a creature of the living God, your first and primary calling is to glorify God.
As a radically corrupt sinner, in order to fulfill your highest calling, you must be cleansed of all unrighteousness in the blood of Jesus. You are called to repent and be born again.
As a born-again Christian you are commanded, according to the Great Commission, to labor for the expansion of Christ’s Kingdom by making disciples of every nation.
As a member of Christ’s Kingdom and slave of righteousness, you are called to labor unified with your fellow-slaves as one body, one bride, in one Spirit, under one lord, Jesus Christ.
Unity, without being together
I want to end this entry here, so you can take the time to stop and consider this call to Christian unity. I want to challenge you to really consider what this biblical unity looks like. Now is an excellent opportunity to examine if you and your local assembly are building these strong biblical ties in the Holy Spirit, or if you are settling for the fakes.
Given the effect of COVID-19, most of you are probably not assembling in person to praise God like you were. I want you to really and humbly consider; is the absence of your local body of brothers and sisters having any effect on your daily life? If your church eldership has made the decision to move your regular worship gathering to an online only forum, are you perfectly content with that form of gathering, or instead does your heart ache and yearn to be back together them; to partake of the means of grace, and to offer praise to your God in a real assembly?
It is not my goal to make any statement on how pastors and elders are leading their church through this time. Instead I would rather expose a lie you may have told yourself, the lie that you are unified with your local church. I want you to prayerfully examine yourself and see the truth of your bond with your local assembly. If you haven’t been able to meet together with your brothers and sisters for these few weeks to raise a unified voice of praise to God, and yet you remain otherwise unaffected and undisturbed in your heart, then worth considering that you may have exchanged the true biblical unity for that cheap substitute. If that is the case, I implore you to repent.
Advance the kingdom
If you are convicted about this, humbly reach out to your pastors and elders about this conviction. Tell them how you want to work to build this biblical unity. I joked earlier that the answer for strong bonds of unity in the Spirit is not another pitch-in meal. Well the answer to building a unified church is not all too complex, and we see it right in the pages of scripture. If you want to work to build this real biblical unity with the brethren, here is how; put your armor on, get in the trenches, and fight the battle for the kingdom alongside your brethren. I tell you the truth, the strongest relationships I have, besides that with my wife, is with the brothers I have labored for the kingdom with. That is the case whether it is the brothers who, with me, preach the gospel to vodou priests, or the ones who I join in pleading for the lives of the pre-born and preaching the gospel outside the abortion mills. Brothers, sisters, pastors, if you want to build real Christian unity in your church, quit playing soldier and go out and be soldiers, unified. Serve your master together as one body in the local context you have been placed for this season. I know many who read this are doing just that. I thank God for you.
Until next time I leave you with this:
“I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
– Ephesians 3:14-21