Unity is Needed for Victory

Ephesians 4:1-15

1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. 4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.

7 However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. 8 That is why the Scriptures say,

“When he ascended to the heights,
he led a crowd of captives
and gave gifts to his people.”

9 Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. 10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

What I see in these verses should be enough evidence to anyone with any intellectual honesty to say that there should be no denominational churches, no differences in what is taught from the pulpit and no different titles than what is given by the Holy Spirit and that each church works together with the others to complete the tasks given to us by Jesus, the head of the church.

In verses 1-6 i see that each of us is individualy called by God and that what ever that calling is on our life that we are to lead our life worth of that call. I was not called to be a pastor in the traditional sense of the word. I have been called to be a pastor in the marketplace and to be amongst the people on a daily basis to spread the Good News to those I come into contact with. My clients are my congregation and how I perform the duties of my calling will be a witness to those clients. They know that there is something different about me and they like what they see.

Verse 2 is probably the biggest area of struggle for most people in the body of Christ. Our flesh does not like the words humble and gentle, nor does it like the word patience. Our flesh wants results, it wants it now and it wants what it wants and doesn't care is people are hurt in the process. If we remember what the word says in 1 Corinthians 13 it tells us what love is. In case you can't remember, here it is:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Verse 3 in our main text is the key to victory for every Christian on the planet. Unity in Spirit and bound together with peace. It is evident what can happen when people get together and are unified in their efforts. Here is an example from the Word.

Joshua 6:15-21

15 On the seventh day the Israelites got up at dawn and marched around the town as they had done before. But this time they went around the town seven times. 16 The seventh time around, as the priests sounded the long blast on their horns, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the town! 17 Jericho and everything in it must be completely destroyed as an offering to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and the others in her house will be spared, for she protected our spies.

18 “Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction, or you yourselves will be completely destroyed, and you will bring trouble on the camp of Israel. 19 Everything made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron is sacred to the Lord and must be brought into his treasury.”

20 When the people heard the sound of the rams’ horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it. 21 They completely destroyed everything in it with their swords—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys.

As we see here these people were following God's commands and they were unified in Spirit and peace and they experienced a total victory against a town that was impossible for them to get on their own. This is what God wants for us, His children. Verse 4 really gets to the point that their is one body and one Spirit. Not 12 bodies and 12 Spirits. Not thousands of bodies and thousands of Spirits. Does this mean there is only one church for everyone? Not at all. What this means is that the body should act together under the direction of the one Holy Spirit. If each pastor of each congregation was actually born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, the message that is preached would be the same. That message is the message of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us.

Verses 5-6 show us that there is only ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism, ONE God and ONE Father. There are not multiple gods and multiple faiths nor are the multiple baptisms. This is the part of the scriptures that the devil has deceived the body of Christ into believing the opposite the most. There are at least 33,800 different denominations that have been started by man since Christ died. Here is a partial list.

Christianity
-Non-Denominational
-The Chosen Elect
-Charismatic
-Neo-Charismatic
-Catholic
-Penacostal
-Baptist
-Southern Baptist
-Southern Conservative
-Strict Baptist
-Independent Baptist
-National Baptist
-Black Primitive Baptist
-Conservative Baptist
-Dunker
-Salvationist
-Eschatological
-Theosophist
-Evangelical
-Episcopal
-Methodist
-African Methodist
-Chinese Methodist
-Christian Methodist
-British Methodist
-Primitive Methodist
-Calvinist
-Congregationalism
-Lutheran
-Lutheran Orthodox
-Taborites
-Moravian
-Utaquists
-Wycliffites
-Waldensians
-Jehovah's Witnesses
-Mormonism
-Aaronic Order
-Latter Day
-Remnant
-Conservative
-Fundamentalist
-Seventh-day Adventist
-Congregationalist
-Anglican
-Monophysite
-Quaker
-Nominal
-Protestants
-Roman Catholic
-Latin Catholic
-Coptic Catholic
-Antiochian
-Maronite
-Syro-Malankara
-Syriac
-Armenian
-Chaldean
-Syro-Malabar
-Byzantine (Constantinopolitan)
-Ukrainian Greek Catholic
-Melkite Greek Catholic
-Romanian
-Hungarian Greek
-Ruthenian Catholic
-Belarusian Greek Catholic
-Bulgarian Greek Catholic
-Slovak Greek Catholic
-Croatian Greek Catholic
-Italo-Albanian Catholic
-Greek Byzantine Catholic
-Macedonian Greek Catholic
-Russian Byzantine Catholic
-Georgian Byzantine Catholic
-Brazilian Catholic
-Mexican National Catholic
-Celtic Catholic
-Ancient Apostolic
-True Catholic
-Polish National Catholic
-Free Catholic
-Liberal Catholic
-Palmarian Catholic
-Spiritus Christi
-Russian Orthodox
-Eastern Orthodox
-Oriental Orthodox
-Nestorians
-Anabaptism
-Restorationism
-Apostolic
-Presbyterian
-Unitarian
-Transcendentalism
-Anabaptist
-Amish
-Beachy Amish
-Nebraska Amish
-Old Order Amish
-Swartzendruber Amish
-Mennonite
-Nontrinitarian
-Greek Orthodox
-Liberal Catholic
-Orthodox Catholic
-Brethren
-Open Brethren
-Exclusive Brethren
-Indian Brethren
-Kerala Brethren
-River Brethren
-Social Brethren
-Anglo-Israelism
-Reformed
-United
-Independent

Islam
-Sunni
-Shi'a
-Ahmadiyya
-Sufism

Hinduism
-Shaivism
-Shaktism
-Vaishnavism
-Smartha
-Balinese

No Religion
-Evolutionist
-Naturalist
-Agnosticism
-Freethinkers
-Secular Humanism

Chinese Folk
-Animism
-Feng Shui
-Xiantianism
-Way of Former Heaven
-Falun Gong
-I-Kuan Tao (Way of Unity)
-T'ung-shan She (Society of Goodness)
-Tien-te Sheng-chiao (Sacred Religion of Celestial Virtue)
-Dao-yuan (Sanctuary of the Dao)
-Tz'u-hui Tang (Compassion Society)

Buddhism
-Thervavada
-Mahayana
-Nichiren
-Pure Land
-Tendai/T'ien Tai
-Zen/Ch'an
-Vajrayana
-Tibetan

Tribal Religions

African Traditional & Diasporic

Sikhism

Juche

Shamanism

Animism

Atheist

New Religions
-Sciencetology

Sikhism

Judaism
-Orthodox Judaism (was the only branch of Judaism till the late 1880's when Reform Judaism, and later Conservative Judaism developed)
-Conservative Judaism
-Reform Judaism

Spiritism
-Astrology

Baha'i Faith

Confucianism

Jainism
-Digambaras (Sky Clad)
-Shvetambaras (White Clad)

Zoroastrianism

Neo-Paganism
-Asatru (Norse)
-Druidism
-Goddess Worship
-Wicca
-Witchcraft

Unitarian-Universalism

Rastafarianism

Shinto
-Koshitsu Shinto (of the Imperial House)
-Jinja (Shrine)
-Kyoha (Sectarian)
-Minzoku (Folk)

Taoism
-Orthodox
-Spirit Claud

Other
-Anago
-Batuque
-Candomble
-Idigene
-Lukumi/Santeria
-Oyontunji
-Umbanda
-Voodoo
-Santo Daime
-Monism
-Pantheistic Monism
-Monotheism

This is just a portion of what is out there. That is the saddest stat that anyone could come up with. Why is there so much division? Deception. Different denominations start because someone doesn't like what is being preached so they start preaching what they want to hear. This is the main tool of the devil to keep the body of Christ ineffective and weak. He gets people to focus on differences and personal tastes or pride and not on what the Word is saying.

Verses 7-10 let us know just how complete our gifts are that were bought through Christ. He had to conquer the entire universe, not just earth. Christ really did pay a heavy price for us.

Verses 11-15 really tie up this message of unity. It doesn't day anything about bishops or arch bishops or deacons. This lists apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers as the roles for people to attain to in the body of Christ. Those who hold these positions are held accountable to the Father because their roles are described in verse 12. They are to equip God's people to do His work and build up the body of Christ. This doesn't say that they are to press their own agenda or put their spin on what the Word says so that it fits their world view. They are to equip using the Word so that people know what is His work to be completed before He returns. When we do that in unity then people grow in their faith and knowledge of Jesus and that we won't be wavering or unstable in our ways. We will know when people are trying to trick us because we know the Holy One.

It is said that the special agents who work for the Secret Service that are in charge of forgery attempts of our currency never study what the forgeries are. They study the real thing and know it so intimately that they can spot a fake from a mile away. This is what we are to do in Christ. We are to study Him and His message so intimately that when someone comes along to try and deceive us we know that what they are saying is a lie. We we see in verse 16 the outcome of doing this is that the whole body fits together perfectly. No missing pieces or nothing out of place. When we each do our special work it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. That is the mission. Are you up to the challenge? I hope so, for Christ's sake.

Numbers 6:24-26 (AMP)

The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you; The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).

Published by Erik L. Vakula
Daily Bread From the Word
Copyright © 2009 Erik Vakula, All Rights Reserved