When One + One Doesn’t Equal Two
Scripture: Genesis 2:24; First Corinthians 1:10; 12:12-13; Ephesians 4:1-6
In my previous two messages discussing what it means to be independent together with God and God’s plumb line, I talked about what happens when we come into agreement with God and begin walking in agreement with Him. I told you that we are to be independent as it relates to being in this world but not a part of it while we are dependent on God for everything. This can only happen when we come into agreement with Him and establish our standards for living in this world according to God’s standards, His plumb line. These two messages laid the foundation for what I want to talk about this morning – what it means mathematically to walk in faith. The title of my message this morning is “When One + One Doesn’t Equal Two.”
When I was in school, I enjoyed some areas of study more than others. One of my favorite subjects in school was math and it was a subject that I excelled in once I learned the multiplication table. In math, just as all of you, I learned early on that one plus one equals two. This was fundamental, simple math. One plus one always equals two. If you have one of something and you add another something to it then you will have two somethings. We do not have to be rocket scientists to understand this simple concept. One plus one equals two – it did yesterday, it does today and it will tomorrow. It’s a fundamental truth, plain and simple! However, what I want you to understand this morning that spiritually that is not always the case.
Now some of you are wondering how in the world I could deliver a sermon titled “When One + One Doesn’t Equal Two” after everything I just said in my opening about simple math. Well when it comes to simple math, one + one always equals two, but what I am going to share with you this morning is not simple math. No, this morning we are going to be talking about the spiritual math where one + one equals one. Say it with me, spiritually, by faith, one + one equals one. I want you to get this in your spirits because as we adapt our thinking to understand this, our lives will change.
Let’s talk about one + one equaling two in the natural. In the natural whenever you have one thing and you add another to it then you now have two separate things. It might be two of the same things or you could have two different things that are totally unique from each other but still equal two things. Each individual thing maintains its own uniqueness although it is numbered in the same counting process as the other thing. Nothing changes about it from a material perspective as it is still unique. This is how this happens in the natural. Now let me use a natural example to demonstrate what happens spiritually by faith. If you have a box of yellow cake mix and some cocoa you have two different things. You could use each accordingly to make something special. You could bake a yellow cake with the mix and create some chocolate frosting with the cocoa. That would become a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. But what would happen if you mixed the cocoa in with the yellow cake mix? Then you would have a totally different cake. Instead of a yellow cake, you would now have a chocolate-looking and chocolate-tasting cake.
If you had a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, its one cake made up of two separate elements. You could actually eat the cake and the frosting separately as many people do. But, if you added the cocoa to the yellow cake mix, the yellow cake ceases to be and a new cake is born. It’s becomes a chocolate-looking cake thereby known as a chocolate cake. There are no components that can be eaten separately. I want you to keep these two cakes in mind because for some Christians, their relationship with Christ is like the yellow cake with chocolate frosting – they maintain their individuality while loosely being connected to Christ as to how they live their lives based on what they believe. For these Christians spiritually one + one continues to equal two. Then there are those Christians whose relationship with Christ is like the yellow cake which was turned into the chocolate cake when the cocoa was added. When Jesus was added to their lives and they connected with Him and their lives were forever changed into something new. They lost themselves in Him. In other words, for these Christians, by faith, one + one now equaled one, not two. Let’s look at what the Word says about one + one equaling one. Turn with me to Genesis 2:24 for a very familiar verse of Scripture that is often quoted during marriage ceremonies.
Genesis 2:24 says, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” When a man and woman marry, they enter the union as two separate individuals. However, once the ceremony is concluded they become one. No one else is one with them in respect to habitation and in respect to affection. Not their mothers. Not their fathers. The individual’s spouse now comes first as they are now “one flesh.” The language of “one flesh” points to a unity of persons, and not simply as it relates to intimacy, but also in relations to community of interests, and exchange of affections. So when a man marries a woman they become one flesh – physically, emotionally, and in some ways spiritually. So, in the eyes of God, when a man and a woman marry, they become one even if they don’t enter the marriage with an oneness mentality. And we have seen what happens when two people marry and they refuse to become one – each maintaining their own individuality and refusing to budge or compromise to become one. They are married in the sense of a legal binding, but for everything else they remain two separate people. In this case one plus one continues to equal two and this is not God’s will for anyone who chooses to marry. In fact, they are living in rebellion to God’s divine plan. I am going to leave you with this question: Do you think God can bless that marriage to its fullness if the couple refuses to become one? Now, let’s look at an example from the early Church. Let’s start with verse twenty of the seventeenth chapter of John where Jesus prays for all believers.
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on Me through their word; 21that they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that You have sent Me. 22And the glory which You gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: 23I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them, as You have loved Me.” (John 17:20-23) In verse twenty-one Jesus prays that we would be one just as He and the Father are one. He prayed that we would be one in Them. In other words, when we accept Christ as our personal Savior, we become one with Him and the Father. But what does that mean and what does it look like? First and foremost, it’s a spiritual reality and the thing about the spiritual is that you don’t always feel it. When it comes to understanding who we are spiritually and living out of that understanding, it starts with being obedient to what we see in the Bible. It progresses to worship and believing. It’s about walking in oneness with Them. In Romans chapter twelve verse two, the Apostle Paul says this progression, this transformation, happens as we renew our mind to what the Bible says. It says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2) We give up ourselves in order to yield to Christ and be in Him as He is in the Father. This is what it means, in part, for our lives to be a sacrifice for the Lord. When we deliberately choose to follow what we sense in our spirits at the expense of what we would prefer to do, that is a sacrifice. That is giving up ourselves for Jesus. As Christians we are incorporated into One body. We are empowered by One Spirit. And we are tied together in the bond of love and charity, all of one heart. This is the prayer that Jesus prayed for us – that we would be one with Them and live accordingly with one another. Paul also emphasizes this oneness in Ephesians chapter four in the first six verses. 1I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2with all low lines and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing one another in love, 3endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Ephesians 4:1-6) Now turn to Acts chapter four.
Acts 4:32 says, “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that any of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.” I want you to see something. We often speak in these last days of unity in Christ, of brotherly love, and of the communion of saints. But what do we see when we look around at the multitude of those identifying themselves as Christians? We see some forty or fifty denominations of Christianity – most of whom keep apart from one another and are not willing to meet or pray together. What a sad state of affairs for the Body of Christ. These different Christian bodies are constantly at different degrees of strife with each other. And what can be considered even worse is that, even among those who belong to the same religious body, there is fighting over differences of applying scripture to what we see taking place in society today. In the early Church it was not like it is today. You see, in the early Church of Jerusalem, the whole multitude of believers were of one heart and soul. The rich and the poor; the learned and simple; Pharisees and Sadducees; Levites and Jews; were so united in Christ that all other distinctions were lost. Selfishness was gone, for each loved his brother as himself. What each person had, they held it not as their own, but as a steward of Christ for the good of all. The love of money was swallowed up in the love of Christ. The ordinary worldly life seemed to have melted into the life of faith and godliness. Their desires were both natural and spiritual, their occupations were both natural and spiritual, and their joys were both natural and spiritual. This is not the world that we live in today – but could it be. Right now, it seems that more of our lives lean heavily toward the things of this world and not the things of God’s world – and that’s not good. If as a Church we took on an oneness mentality and believed that one plus one equals one, then we could return there – but it costs something. It is hard for the Church to think this way today because if you take a close look at our surroundings, we truly believe it’s every man and woman for themselves. Romans 12:5 say, “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” As Christians we are all part of one body – we actually make up one body. If the Church lives out the answer to the prayer that Jesus prayed for us in John chapter seventeen, then absolutely one plus one equals one. In fact, one plus one plus one plus one plus infinity will always equal one. Turn to First Corinthians chapter twelve.
First Corinthians 12:12-13 says, “For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 13For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” Christians are not separate, unrelated units; we are compacted together and form one whole, which is “the body of Christ.” Of this body, Christ is the Head (Colossians 2:19), the central controlling and directing Power, and each believer is one member of the body. In this passage the apostle is speaking of the members of the body rather than of the Head, of Christians rather than directly of Christ. The point that the apostle Paul is making is that all of the diversity of gifts given and possessed by the Church were given by the same Holy Spirit so in all of the gifts there is oneness. The gifts are different but were given by one Spirit to one body – the body of Christ. For this reason, regardless of the gift(s) you are given, they should be appropriately cherished and prized, as being all useful and valuable in their places in the body of Christ. Paul used the human body as a prime example of oneness. The human body is composed of various members and parts that all unite harmoniously in one whole. Everything that makes up the human body is unique and special in its own right, but it exists as part of one body and cannot exist separately from that body. When one of the members of the body is separated from the body, it dies. This same principle applies to every body part that is separated from Christ – in the end they die spiritually.
Sometimes it is not easy being an individual member that is also part of a larger body. You see, we are wired for individuality. I have my likes and dislikes and I do not want others infringing on them. Sometimes in order to be a member of a larger body you must make personal sacrifices for the benefit of the whole. Jesus demonstrated this when He sacrificed Himself for us. Likewise, when we are joined to His body, we will have to make sacrifices that benefit the good, even when we don’t immediately see that benefit. And there are many times when we will not, especially when it comes to interpreting what the Word of God says. This problem also arose in the New Testament Church when people disagreed on certain teachings. Paul addressed this issue with the Corinthians when he wrote, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (1 Corinthians 1:10) Paul had heard about the divisions happening in the Church at Corinth where some were aligning themselves to certain apostles or just to Christ. It became such an issue that Paul was compelled to address it. Apparently the divisions had been caused by the influence of philosophy, the ambition for distinction, and the exhibition of popular eloquence among the Corinthian teachers. Does this sound familiar? Do we not see this happening within the Church now? People are drawn to the charismatic speakers versus the teachers who don’t appeal to the emotions. People compare how many followers they have versus someone else. Paul said we should all be followers of Christ and there are no divisions within Him! Paul makes it clear that the success of the gospel did not depend on the reasoning of philosophy, or the persuasions of eloquence. The success of the gospel was how it was seamlessly taught and lived! Peter gave a similar thought when he wrote, “Finally, be all of one mind, having compassion one with another, love as brethren, be tender hearted, be courteous.” (First Peter 3:8)
Turn with me to one final Scripture Galatians 3:28. It says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Everything that I have shared with you previously leads to this one verse, that when we are saved we become one in Jesus Christ. That idea is about creating a union – it’s about our joining Christ – not Him joining us. Remember the example I gave at the beginning about the yellow cake mix and the cocoa? Remember how I told you that with the yellow cake mix and the cocoa you could create a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and once the cake was created you could still eat the cake and the frosting separately? That, my friends, is the relationship that many Christians want to have with Christ. They want to be connected to Him and have a relationship with Him but they want it on their terms. They want to be able to do what they want to do when they want to do it and have Christ be happy with it. They want to read the sections of the Bible that makes them feel good while ignoring the sections that convict them about how they are living. Yellow cake with chocolate icing is a good representation of the Church today and it is going to get worse. We are entering a time when the Church will look more like a yellow cake with no icing on it but the icing is kept on the side. Everyone claims to be a true believer but maintaining their own individuality.
But let me describe for you the Church Jesus is coming back for. In my cake example we are the yellow cake mix and Jesus is the cocoa. When we accept Him as our personal Savior we are changed. We are still cake mix, but we are no longer yellow cake mix – we will now make a chocolate cake. Once the cocoa has been added no one can remove it from the mix. This is the Church Jesus is coming back for. One that has been permeated with His Spirit and who are living by His commandments. He is coming back for a Church which loves Him more than it loves itself. He is coming back for a Church that says “yes” to Him versus “Maybe if I have time.” He is coming back for a Church that believes in His second coming and is anxiously awaiting His arrival. He is coming back for a Church that wakes up every morning disappointed that the rapture has not occurred yet so they must face another day. This is the Church that He expects to be waiting for His arrival. Jesus is coming back for a Church that believes one plus one equals one. If you are sick and the doctor tells you that you will not recover and you accept his/her conclusion, then one plus one equals two. However, if you hear their diagnosis and you go to God in faith and you recover, then one plus one equaled one in that case. You have more bills than money and you expect not to be able to pay your bills – one plus one equals two. If you have more bills than money and yet at the end of the month all your bills were paid, then one plus one equals one. Remember, when we become one with Christ by faith, nothing is impossible to Him. One plus one equaling one is not impossible with God – as a matter of truth, it’s how He operates! Remember Hebrews 11:1 which says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) If you are living and walking in faith then one plus one will not equal two in your situation. Remember, faith changes things. It changes how the calculations are made. So, are you a part of “that” Church that Jesus will be coming back for?
By faith in Christ, “One plus one will always equal One!” He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. We are the middle – not in charge of anything, just waiting and watching as Jesus to do His thing. If you are trying to be in control, then one plus one will always equal two in your life. I am asking you to let go. Allow God room to work and I promise you how you do your personal math will change.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(We are once again conducting live services on Sunday morning beginning at 9:15 a.m. We will continue to broadcast live on Facebook Live at 10:00 a.m.. Please tune in to "New Light Christian Fellowship Church" and like our page if you wish to watch our broadcast and be notified when we go live. If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. We also have Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. via Zoom that you are also welcome to attend – please email me for the link. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
