Unity in Christ is real (or Unity in Christ is near) – Ephesians 4:1-7 (NIV) As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 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. 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. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

This is no well-padded marketing sell. Paul strongly urges (calls) the church in Ephesus to live a life (walk in a manner) worthy of their calling. These are exceptional traits he lists that are rarely demanded in our world. Humility. Gentleness. Patience. Bearing with each other in love. I always laugh when people act like these are easy, fluffy, comfort words. Notice that these are only expressed under tension and with adversity. The only time you’ll hear a bartender urging for patience and gentleness is to slow a brewing bar fight. A friend of mine in college once said, “the Christian life, like a car in neutral, is only coasting if it’s going downhill.” This effort to keep unity isn’t moving forward if you are coasting downhill. If unity is a beautiful effort, it is the dirt, sweat and blood washed down the sink after worn and weary hands wash off the evidence of an important project that has been hard fought for.  Paul asks for exertion. Hard work to keep a unity that has already been won by the Holy Spirit using a bond we already possess. The bond of peace is granted to all Christ-followers when we each receive Christ’s life.  His peace with the Father is gifted and the war in our soul is decided, even if far from over. This peace with God is what demands love with each other (see most of 1st John or worse, read Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 18:21-35). 

Of course this actual unity is not at all uniformity.  It does not demand personalities to diminish, for cultures to be set aside, for our experiential backgrounds to be abandoned.  Paul imagines this one body to be made of many parts working together.  Some of his references to the diversity of bodily functions in the church is tied to spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12).  They also are tied to the richness of ethnic and cultural diversity in the body that displays the enormous breadth, depth and width of the Father’s love, from whom every family derives it’s name (Eph 4:14-19). We need to experience this diversity in order to be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”. In addition to a diversity of gifting, culture, experience, we should add age, gender and theological perspective.  That both women and men, young and old, are important for the church to function well shouldn’t be of any controversy, although there is much to say about the details elsewhere.  But many don’t see an importance of the diversity of theological view points within the unity of the church. If Paul claims there exists one Lord, one faith, one baptism, then shouldn’t we all conform to the same doctrinal positions?  No. Paul spills much ink to the churches of Corinth and Galatia warning about unfruitful theological debates, or debates handled unfruitfully. Clearly there can not be complete theological apathy or confusion, so individual churches and associations of churches gather around central doctrinal documents, confessions, or their equivalent to help them form and articulate their understanding of the core tenants of our shared faith.  It shouldn’t be argued that what we believe about God, his Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit and their self-revelation is unimportant.  But as Paul implores, recognizing in humility, that Jesus belongs to no single group of Christians in our age or ages past. There certainly are people who are not united with us in our faith, whom Jesus will say sadly, “I did not know you.” (REF).  But Jesus also seems to teach that perhaps even the disciples might be surprised with whom they share a fellowship table in eternity (REF).  

So Paul urges us to take great pains to leverage the bond we share with other Christians, the bond of peace, the person of Christ.  This is not an off-topic trail, for nearly every conflict born from cultural difference I have experiences, even those which begin with dinning habits, ultimately are blamed on theological difference or deficiency.  This is a lazy mistake. I take great umbrage with people who make up theological issues to leave churches that actually only offended their sense of power or preference.  Church leaders should be even more careful to dig deeper into why cultural conflict occurs rather than quickly dismiss groups or individual for “theological” misgivings.  In order to live in a worthy manner, we must focus on the central unity by which we share our communion with the Father, the person of Jesus.  His bound of peace is real and tangible, allowing us to be saved!  So also we can fight hard to  restore relationships.  It will take mighty patience, exhausting gentleness, strenuous humility, and a strength in love that will grow spiritual and relational muscles we didn’t think we had. Uniformity is cubic zirconia. Unity is the real deal.