“...the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.”
– 1 Timothy 3:15

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13. COMMUNITY UNITY

One of the sacrosanct hallmarks of being community is the real time unity amongst each and every member that goes to make up the community. Without unity, there cannot be said to be a community; but only shambles of groupings or cliques.

The apostle Paul recognises too well the significance of unity in the community of which he is, physically and spiritually, a part of - the church of Christ. He has seen the havoc and the disarray in the Corinthian church, and perhaps in a good many other local churches as well. He does not tolerate the divisions and the quarrels. As a matter of fact, he asks the Corinthians rather pointedly: ‘Is Christ divided?’ (1 Cor. 1:13a).

The Corinthian church was divided along factional lines drawn around personalities. In the instance of the Roman church, it was split down the ethno-religious line that distinguished a Jew from a non-Jew. Both forms of divisions are unacceptable and Paul, in writing to both the congregations, tells them so in no uncertain terms. For example, to the Romans, he writes:
     Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with
     sober judgment. - 12:3
and
     I urge you, brothers, 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 Christ, but their own appetites. - 16:17-18

Yet, Paul does not restrict himself to warnings and castigation in dealing with the problem of disunity. He uses positive teaching too. Thus, to the ethnic conscious Roman Christians, he flatly tells them that when all things are considered, they stand in the same square of having sinned and in need of the grace of God and the justification that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Neither the Jew is to boast of his privileges in being the ‘chosen’, nor is the Gentile to be puffed up in having supplanted his Jewish counterpart. All these have been said and done with in chapters 1-11.

Now, in chapter 12, he urges both Jewish and Gentile Christians (he calls them, ‘brothers’, alike) to offer their bodies as ‘living sacrifices’ and to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. Such a transformation or renewing of minds calls for some radical changes, in particular, in the aspect of worldviews. Both Jews and Gentiles need to change their worldviews about each other. Both need to discard some old habits (e.g., the habit of hubris) and both need to take on some Christian values and teachings.

One teaching and value that the Romans (and for the same matter, the Corinthians, too) need to take on is that of community unity. It is such an essential and necessary component in the church that the Lord Jesus himself should pray:
     I pray for those who will believe in me,... that all of them may be one. - John 17:20 (selective)

This ‘all-may-be-one’ prayed for by Jesus is characterised by the apostle Paul as ‘one body with many members’ (Rom. 12:4). Paul is using a live and concrete illustration, which the Romans (and all believers throughout all times and places) can very well identify with; for every human person is a ‘body with many members’. The thing about this ‘body with many members’ is that the ‘members’ are not all alike to each other. Paul says, ‘these members do not all have the same function’ (v. 4).

Thus, one of the things that we can learn about unity is that unity is not to be equated with blanket sameness or uniformity. Rather, it is in the nature of things to be different; and out of all the differences, a certain measure of unity and harmony comes into existence. We see this in our own human body; we see this in the planetary and cosmic systems; we see this too in the ecosystems of organisms; and if Paul were to have his way, we should see this too in the church. He writes:
     [S]o in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the
     others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us. - 12:5, 6a

Unity in diversity, diversity in unity, this is what Paul wants for the church to be. In fact, it cannot be any other way. Unity in patternistic conformity, without room for expression of differences, is one dimensional tyranny. Diversity, without the harnessing of the differences towards a common good, is mayhem.

Paul wants the Roman church to understand this dual principle of unity in diversity and diversity in unity. He wants them to live it out and live it up. They have ‘different gifts’; good, and all the more blessed they are because of their differences. But they need to use these ‘different gifts’ in complement to each others’ so as to give expression to the ‘one body with many members’ and ‘each member belongs to all the others’. In this way, unity can truly be said to have been forged from diversity.

Archive
The Romans Series
1. Being the Community of God’s People
2. Ethno-Religious Tensions
3. The Power and the Wrath of God
4. Justification by Faith
5. Justification Brings Blessings
6. While We Were Still Sinners
7. Died to Sin
8. Slaves to Righteousness
9. The Difference of the Spirit
10. The Israel Problem
11. The Gentile Problem
12. Community Living
13. Community Unity
14. Community Ethics
15. Loving the Enemy Ethic
16. Extra-Community Ethics
17. The Weak and the Strong
18. Community Formation
19. Paul, the Minister
20. Gems in Greetings

Articles on The Da Vinci Code, Gnosticism and
the Gospel of Judas
1. The Da Vinci Code: A Christian Response
2. The Nag Hammadi Documents and Gnosticism
3. The Gospel of Judas
4. The Gospel of Judas - A Retake
5. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 1)
6. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 2)
7. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 3)
8. Canonicity and the Gospel of Judas

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