THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH*
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
[*This
tract was published in April, 1946: and its
teaching is more needed today than ever! Ed.]
There
is no more dynamic movement in the Churches of the world to-day than a passion
to achieve the unity of the Church; and there is no movement within the
Churches fraught with more danger. It
can have only one goal - reunion with the Church of Rome. Roman Catholics exceed Protestants; and a Pope
has said that a single flock under a single shepherd
may be reached in the near future. Moreover powerful movements both in the Church
of England and in the Free Churches are openly doing all in their power to
produce such a reunion. Any scheme for
intercommunion, said a late Bishop of Gibraltar, which
does not embrace the Roman Church, would be like the play of Hamlet without
Hamlet. Therefore it becomes of
vital importance that every one of us should know exactly what church unity,
according to divine revelation, is; and once to know this truth is to make
reunion with
Vital Unity
The
Church is to-day by far the most extraordinary work of God in the world; and
Pauls definition of the Church is a vital revelation. Ye, are the body of Christ, and severally individually
members thereof (1Cor. 12: 27). All depends on my being a branch in the True
Vine, possessing, and possessed by, Christ: he only is a member of the Church,
who accepts the truth acceptance of which creates theChurch.* Membership in the Body is degided by one thing
alone - vital union with the Head: we may have a hand amputated, or an eye
blinded, or a leg crippled without the loss of life; but separation from the
head is death. All perish who are not
vitally one with Christ. He that hath
the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life (1
John 9: 12). As the body is one, and
hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body:
so also is the Christ - the Mystical Christ, the Church.**
[*
If thou shah confess with thy mouth, Jesus as Lord
- incarnate Godhead and shalt believe in thy heart
that God raised him from the dead - a literal rising of the body from the tomb THOU SHALT BE SAVED (Rom.
10: 9).
** Therefore the church that welcomes into fellowship
the unsaved whether baptized infants or non-born-again adults is not a
church at all, but an amalgam of the Church and the world that is neither the
one or the other.]
Organity Unity
The
Church therefore is, secondly, a most wonderful organic unity. It is no machine, acting mechanically; it is
no collection of isolated Christians; it is no mere union of Christian friends,
or a religious club: the Church is a God-selected band, planned for one
another, possessed of one Spirit, and growing together in one body. Christ is head over
all things to his church, which is his body
(Eph. 1: 22); and God hath set the members each of them
in the body, even as it pleased him (1
Cor. 12: 18) - that is, not arbitrarily, but studiedly, as each member
needs each other. No child of God is
unessential to the prosperous working of the Church. The eye can not say - not, may
not say, but cannot, for it would
not be the truth - to the hand, I have no need of thee:
or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. It is God who tempered the body together: it
is God who set each of us in his place, exactly positioned to be of the best
use to all: it is God who can counter-balance weakness with grace as to give more abundant honour to that part which lacked (verse 24).
Functual Unity
So,
the ideal church, as God planned it, has a marvellous functional unity. The less gifted member can fulfil his function
better than tht most highly gifted: by contentment with his place and office and
gift, and with concentrated devotion, he fulfils the exquisite symmetry and
health of the Body of Christ, and so does a vital work. The good class leader, the skilful soul-winner,
the born teacher, the fruitful evangelist, the wise organizer, the loving
visitor of the sick, the succourer of the poor - we are to rejoice in each
others gifts, and glory in the excellencies of our brothers and sisters. And so if a brother falls - if an eye goes
blind, or a hand is paralysed, or a foot grows septic - we are all to feel the
hurt: as Paul himself says, - Is any weak, and I am
not weak? is any made to stumble, and I burn not? (2 Cor. 11: 29). The riper each saint grows, the riper the
whole church grows and every member whose growth is retarded tends to cripple
the whole Body: every member has an effect on the whole
Fellowship
The
Church being thus a vital unity in Christ, membership rests solely on the fact
of a regenerate life: if the Church is the assembly of all vitally united with
Christ, then all vitally united with
Christ must be accepted as the Church - that is, accepted into fellowship. Forbearing one
another in love; giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4: 3): we do not make the unity of the Spirit, we can only keep it, exactly as we do
not make a Christian, but can only receive him when made. Wherefore receive ye
one another, even as Christ also received you, to the glory of God (Rom. 15:
7).* Dr. Thomas Cochrane admirably illustrates it thus:- One evening an Irish servant girl went in to speak to a
minister, and he had in front of him all his Catechisms, etc. They were very strict in those days. The minister began to ask this servant girl
some questions, which she could not answer. At last he shut his books; and looking at her,
he said:- Mary, do you love Jesus? And
the tears started in her eyes, and she said: - Sir, I could die for Him! Oh,
friends, surely we should all be able to say that to-day. The one essential for Christian unity is that
we should recognise all who accept Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. We may use different phraseology; but that is
the one absolute essential. And any man
and woman who accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord is my brother
and sister.
[*
Our own rejection by our brethren does not affect our acceptance of them. Most remarkably, the Apostle John, though
excommunicated by Diotrophes (3 John 10),
counters with no excommunication of him.]
Schism
Now
looms up the tragic disunity of the
Heresy
But,
there is a graver sin than schism. Separation in the Body can become separation from the Body: the one is schism,
the other is heresy. Heresy is a sect,
that is, an organized faction, on principle separating from the other members of the Body; a section
organized to enforce either a truth or an error.* The command concerning such is very
remarkable:- A man that is factious (R.V.
margin) after a first and second admonition refuse,
avoid (Titus 3: 10) - beg thyself off from (Govett). And grave is the punishment to be inflicted on
the sin of organized faction:- The works of the flesh
are manifest - factions, divisions,
parties (R.V. margin) [heresies]: of the which I
forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they which practise such things shall
not inherit the
[*
The retention of the Greek word in the English translation is gravely
misleading, for our word heresy has come to
have but one meaning - error in doctrine. Any group of Christians who enforce a non-fundamental
doctrine, or a rite, or membership in a particular group as a condition of
fellowship create a heresy, that is, an
organized division which Scripture forbids. Supremely is this true of the Church of Rome.
[**
There are also damnable heresies (2 Pet. 2 : 1), sects of perdition (R.V. margin);
nominally Christian, but fundamentally non-Christian: such are Christian
Science, Christadelphianism, Mormonism, etc.]
Excommunication
Nevertheless
there is an exceedingly grave separation which is not only allowed but
commanded. I write
unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother -
that is, a Christian by profession,
whether regenerate or not be a fornicator, or
covetous, or an idolator, or a. reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with
such a one NO, NOT TO EAT (1 Cor. 5: 11).
Catholicity
So
we arrive at the final and golden truth - that the individual believer can, by
studied care, maintain the Churchs true catholicity: he can achieve an almost
impossible ideal - the reconciling of
love of the brethren with loyalty to the,truth. The basis of countless sects assumes that we
must enforce
the truth, because it is the truth; and this enforcing of a doctrine or ritual
or practise - whether true or false - as a term of communion compels division,
an organized separation. What is forgotten is that the truth will be
vindicated completely without our enforcing it on others: there is but one
judge, and every item of our creed will he analysed to its root at the judgment
Seat of Christ, where all truth will be vindicated for ever. But love,
now, is to rule. The local assembly
which receives all believers - that is, all who give credible evidence of
saving faith - into full fellowship, and the individual believer who does the
same whether any local assembly receives him or not, is helping the Divine
fulfilment of our Lords wonderful prayer when He foresaw the Churchs rent and
bleeding divisions:- Holy Father, keep them in thy
name which thou has given me, that they may be one, EVEN
AS WE ARE (John 17: 11). Augustine
has given us the lovely summary of Scriptural catholicity:- I take the whole Christ (human and divine) for my Saviour; I
take the whole Bible for my guide; I take the whole Church for my fellowship;
and I take the whole world for my parish.
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