And the first prize for most unifying religion goes to…
Easy answer, right? Obviously, the answer is supposed to be Christianity, isn’t it? And yet the church isn’t always very unified—at all. At last count, there are over 45,000 Christian denominations globally. Narrow it down to just one denomination, and chances are that even that one isn’t very unified. Narrow that denomination down to just one church in that one denomination, and even just one life group in that church, and if you’ve been part of a church longer than a month, you can guess it’ll have its share of disunity.
A big-C Church that isn’t very unified itself is probably not going to do a great job bringing unity to people outside the church.
So, how exactly do we get unity in a church? How can Christianity win first prize for most unifying religion?
How to Unite the Most People: 3 Ideas
How do you bring the most people together as one? I can think of three ways:
Lower the Bar.
The first way you can try to bring the most people together is by lowering the bar. You lower the bar, and it makes it easier for people to join in. Makes sense, right?
But if lowering the bar is a way to bring the most people together, I don’t think Christianity can win first prize at that. All you have to do is trace the church to around the year A.D. 300, and you’ll see a false version of Christianity that does a much better job of lowering the bar to make it easier for people to join in. When Emperor Constantine died and his son Constantius became emperor, Constantius saw in Arianism, a heretical version of Christianity, an even better way of unifying the empire. Because Arianism taught that Jesus wasn’t quite God, it was easier set of beliefs for pagans to accept than historic Christianity. Thus, Emperor Constantius tried (unsuccessfully, in the end) to force the bishops to accept Arianism.
When it comes to lowering the bar to unify people together, Arianism beats Christianity. Are there any other ways Christianity can take first prize in unifying people?
“When it comes to lowering the bar to unify people together, Arianism beats Christianity.”
Widen the Gate.
A second way you can try to bring the most people together is by widening the gate. Widen the gate so that more people join in. And maybe they won’t even know it! Widen the gate, and suddenly more people are in.
I guess that could work, in a way, but I don’t think Christianity can win that one either. I’ve spent some time studying Buddhism, and there’s a branch of Buddhism called Mahayana Buddhism in which you become enlightened but you put off nirvana for yourself. You don’t enter nirvana yourself until you have been able to bring every living thing, down to the last blade of grass, into nirvana. And if you’ve ever read the Lotus Sutra, you see that the Buddha is even able to lie to people, to strategically use dishonesty, if that helps bring them into nirvana. You do whatever it takes to get every living thing into nirvana.
When it comes to widening the gate to bring the most people in, I’m pretty sure Mahayana Buddhism beats Christianity.
Hoist the Flag.
A third way you can unify the most people is by hoisting the flag. What does that mean? Well, if I can gather enough people around a common cause, hoisting the flag for a cause that multiple groups can come around, that’s a great way to unify people.
But I’ve studied a philosophy called intersectional feminism since 2016. Intersectional feminism is kind of the latest wave of feminism, and it tries to bring together multiple groups that have been oppressed by people in power. The oppressed groups include categories such as gender or gender identity or race or sexual orientation or body style. Intersectional feminism mobilizes us to take the groups that have been in the center—privileged groups—and decenter those groups in order to bring the groups that have been oppressed to the center. We then give these oppressed voices the opportunity to define truth and justice.
When it comes to hoisting the flag to unify the most groups together, at least in our corner of the world, I’d say intersectional feminism is probably beating Christianity.
“When it comes to hoisting the flag to unify the most groups together, at least in our corner of the world, I’d say intersectional feminism is probably beating Christianity.”
If you unify the most people by lowering the bar, widening the gate, or hoisting the flag, I’m not at all sure Christianity wins.
Yet is bar-lowering, gate-widening, flag-hoisting unity the kind of unity described in the Bible? What is unity according to the Bible?
Key Scriptures on Unity
A quick tour through scriptures on unity tells us a couple core truths: first, that unity is worth pursuing. Second, that unity happens insofar as we submit to the lordship of one Lord: Jesus.
First, consider what it says about the importance and beauty of unity among the people of God:
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1, NIV)
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:2-3, NIV)
And how do we pursue this unity? We are brought together in unity as we bow to the lordship of Jesus:
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6, NIV)
“[God will] bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:10b, NIV)
What is unity in the Bible? “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
Unity doesn’t come to Christians naturally. These verses point us to the one thing we really have going for us as we seek church unity. And what is that?
The Source of Our Unity
One thing within Christianity is very unified, as we are reminded in one of the most foundational passages in Scripture:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV)
We might not always be one, but it says here in the “Shema” in Deuteronomy that God is one. What can we make of God’s oneness? For one thing, we know his oneness is important, as it is what gives us the why behind the greatest of all commandments. Why should I love God with all of me? Well, it’s because God is one:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, NIV)
Again, why love God with every part of me? It’s because of God’s oneness. And God’s oneness means at least a couple more things. First, “God is one” means that God is unique. He’s in a category all by himself. He is God the one and only. So, with all your heart, soul, and strength, worship Him—not some idol, not some lower-case “god,” not some seductive pursuit. Worship Him. God is unique.
What is unity in the Bible? “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
Secondly, “God is one” also means that God is unified. Instead of being duplicitous or unreliable, God is one. He’s not hot and then cold, good and then evil:
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17, NIV)
From the Shema, we see that God who is one makes me one. God who is unified makes me unified. How so? He takes a guy like me—hot and then cold, committed to God and then, “oh look, an idol,” soul and body often fighting each other—and brings me together heart, soul, and strength in loving Him.
Our God who is one makes me one, makes me whole. Our God who is unified—in fact, who is a tri-unity, a Trinity—takes fragmented, disjointed me and makes me unified.
Which brings us to perhaps the most important passage in the Bible on the topic of unity, Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17.
Jesus’ Prayer for Unity
In John 17, Jesus prays for His disciples to be one in the same way as He and the Father are one. He goes on to pray that His followers down throughout history would be one in this same way. This, Jesus says, will be key to the rest of the world knowing that Jesus is from God. Here’s the part where Jesus prays for His disciples through all time, including us:
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:20-23, NIV)
If we add in what we learned from the Shema in Deuteronomy, we see that our God who is one pieces me together and pieces you together—by piecing us together in Him.
What is unity in the Bible? “Our God who is one pieces me together and pieces you together—by piecing us together in Him.”
If I’m known but not loved, that’s called coldness. If I’m loved but not really known, that’s called shallowness. If I’m neither known nor loved, that’s called loneliness. But when we know and are known, love and are loved, that’s called oneness. Instead of coldness, shallowness, or loneliness, Jesus prays for, models, and grows us into oneness.
What’s the Point of Christianity?
In Jesus’ prayer for unity, He prays how, just as He and the Father know each other, “I have made you [God] known to them [the disciples]” (John 17:26a, NIV). He explains that knowing God is eternal life (John 17:3). He also prays that “the love you [God] have for me may be in them [the disciples] and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:26b). You and I are invited to know and love, be known and be loved by God. Amid a cold, shallow, lonely world, that’s the oneness, the abundant eternal life Jesus invites us into.
The point of Christianity is not to read my Bible, pray, go to church, and then finally receive something hard to understand called “eternal life.” No, the point is more like this: I read my Bible and in so doing listen to God. I pray and in so doing talk to God. We gather as a church and in so doing we listen to each other and talk with each other.
The end result is relationships, vertical and horizontal. These are relationships of knowing and loving. Relationships that bring joy and that heal wounds. These relationships thaw our coldness, deepen our shallowness, and chase away our loneliness.
The point is oneness, it’s peace, it’s relationship, it’s joy.
“The point is oneness, it’s peace, it’s relationship, it’s joy.”
In John 17:13, Jesus prays,
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” (John 17:13, NIV)
What Unity Does
A married couple doesn’t have kids because they’re lonely. They have kids because they love each other. It’s out of that relationship—that joy, that oneness—that kids come.
And God was never lonely. From all eternity, it has been God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit in this relationship of joy. And they created us to join in that joy.
When we Christians experience Christianity as it is meant to be—knowing and loving, being known and being loved, by God and by each other—then it’s no surprise when people on the outside take notice. In a world bitterly divided by political party, ethnicity, and social class, when people see a church full of these same crazy differences loving each other, that makes a person on the outside pause and think.
When they see a church full of differences which isn’t snubbing each other in coldness, pretending to like each other in shallowness, or abandoning each other in loneliness—but rather loving each other in oneness—then it’s no surprise they want in.
“When they see the church full of differences which isn’t snubbing each other in coldness, pretending to like each other in shallowness, or abandoning each other in loneliness—but rather loving each other in oneness—then it’s no surprise people want in.”
We’re not aiming for uniformity but unity. Amid our differences, let’s submit to the lordship of Jesus and make His prayer our priority:
“…That they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:23, NIV)
