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UNITY – THE HALLMARK OF THE TRUE CHURCH

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UNITY – THE HALLMARK OF THE TRUE CHURCH

“Greet Mary… Andronicus and Junia… Ampliatus… Urbanus and Stachys… Apelles… Aristobulus… Herodion… the household of Narcissis… Tryphena and Tryphosa… Persis… Rufus and his mother… Asynchritis… Phlegon… Hermes… Patrobas… Hermas and the other brothers and sisters with them… Philologus… Julia… Nereus and his sister… Olympas and all the Lord’s people with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.” Romans 16:6-16.

Strange-sounding names! Real people! Paul knew a host of people, both men and women in the churches in Rome, well-known associates who had worked with him or who had served well in the churches he had founded or with whom he was closely associated. He was always quick to commend or show appreciation for his fellow believers.

When one thinks that this was a young movement in the Roman Empire – not even thirty years old, with no history except that of the Jewish people, which was their root, the maturity of God’s people in a hostile environment was amazing. They had to be, because there were few grey areas in the church.

O yes, there were always the false teachers who distorted the gospel and tried to lure people away. There were the gullible ones, who left the flock to follow them but to be a follower of Jesus was dangerous and not for the faint-hearted. His true disciples knew the risks, stuck together and supported and cared for one another, creating a tight-knit group across the empire called “the church”.

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.” Romans 16:17, 18.

Into this close fellowship crept those who were there for their own reasons. Paul was not shy to warn believers about those who sowed dissention and taught lies to confuse, cause division and lure people into following them. Jesus described these people as “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” From the earliest days of the infant church, the apostles were careful to preserve the precious unity that the Holy Spirit had created in the beginning.

“All the believers were together and had everything in common… All the believers were one in heart and mind…” Acts 2:44; Acts 4:32a.

As the church grew and spread, there were the unscrupulous ones, always ready to do the work of their master, the devil. The apostles all warned the flock against such people. On his way to Jerusalem for the last time, Paul warned the Ephesian elders:

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. I know that, after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:28-30.

How tragic that there are people who are so greedy and self-centred, in spite of hearing the truth, that they use unsuspecting people for their own ends.  Leaders in the church have a threefold responsibility – to protect love, preserve unity and promote contentment. Paul’s counsel was, “Be ruthless with those who cause division. Have nothing to do with them. Throw out the rotten apple from the box before it infects all the others.”

Why is this so important? Unity is the very glue of the universe. It is a reflection of who God is.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Deuteronomy 6:4, was the daily confession of the people of God. The constitution of Israel, the Torah, was an expression of and a mandate to preserve unity among His people because God is one. It is our mandate to maintain that unity in humility by love and mutual submission under the authority and leadership of God’s appointed leaders so that the church can be a reflection of God to the world.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

CONNECTED!

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CONNECTED!

With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.   (1 Peter 5: 12-14)

Is this writer the same rough and ready fisherman who put his foot in his mouth every time he opened it? What a long way Peter has come since the days when he walked with Jesus on earth!

As we have moved through this letter, we couldn’t help feeling that there was a strong connection between Peter and Paul. So many of his thoughts and expressions echoed Paul’s that it was almost as though they had spent hours together honing their understanding of the gospel entrusted to them. We know that Peter had read many of Paul’s letters because he mentioned them in his second letter.

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3: 15-16)

After his initial suspicion, Peter had a high regard for Paul. Whether or not they actually spent time together, he was able to read his letters which he regarded as inspired, putting them in the same category as ‘the other Scriptures’.

Silas, if he was the same Silas who accompanied Paul on his second missionary journey, was also a link. We have no idea how Silas came to be with Peter when he wrote this letter. Was he Peter’s scribe? Did he help Peter to form his ideas in the Greek language which was not Peter’s first language? Scholars have noted that Peter’s Greek is the most complicated of all the New Testament writers. Where did he learn to write Greek like that?

And what about Mark whom he also mentioned in his final greeting? He called him ‘my son’, obviously indicating a very close association with him. Mark’s Gospel is based, according to New Testament scholarship, on Peter’s preaching which Mark may have recorded or he may have had access to Peter’s written notes, upon which Matthew and Luke based their gospels.

All of these clues point to an interconnection between the leaders in the early church. This is remarkable, considering that there was no technology to keep them in touch, and that they ministered to groups of people across the Roman Empire which spanned the whole Mediterranean area, without the luxury of motorised vehicles or air travel. They had to get around by ship or on foot and letters were delivered by hand, not even by ‘snail mail’!

Who was the ‘she’ and where was ‘Babylon’? ‘She’ could have been any prominent and well-known Christian woman or even a group of believers who resided in ‘Babylon’ and who were known to Peter’s readers. Why did he not mention her name or identify them? We don’t know. It may have been for security reasons.

Where was ‘Babylon’? Was it a cryptic title for Rome? The ancient city of Babylon no longer existed at that time. Did the spiritual leaders of that day already recognise in Rome some of the characteristics of the city of Babylon where God’s ancient people had suffered under Babylonian captivity? The church was, in a sense, in captivity as well because of persecution at the hands of Roman rulers.

‘Babylon’ in the book of Revelation is a pseudonym for the counterfeit church or the bride, the scarlet woman, the great prostitute who was a counterfeit of the bride of Christ. The church was in the world just like the Jews were in Babylon, and even there, God protected them and restored them to their own land.

Whatever Peter meant by his words, we are comforted to know that God protects His church in the midst of the pain and suffering we experience as part of this world system.  He will rescue and restore His people to their own ‘land’; the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He returns to restore everything to its original purpose.

 

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.