Unity Demands Theological Integrity

“I have given [My disciples] your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” [1]

Christian unity has been a goal (I would even be inclined to say, a fevered dream) of liberal churches for decades. Nay, increase the time span to centuries. The website for the World Council of Churches, a conglomeration of more than three hundred fifty religious organisations, espouses unity as one of the primary reasons for the existence of the group. [2] Similarly, a major emphasis for the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, is advocacy for “Christian unity.” [3] In Canada, the Canadian Council of Churches promote the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity as their contribution to the annual global ecumenical celebration. [4]

These religio-ecclesiastical groups are composed primarily of liberal churches, or at least groups with notably lax theological standards, all claiming to be Christian. Thus, their proclaimed emphases of being Christian are designed to lend an air of legitimacy and are to be expected. Paul identifies groups such as these in the follow devastating description as he looks forward to this present day, writing, “Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people” [2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5]. The most damning part of this dark description must surely be when Paul writes, “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” Just so, these groups emphasise ostentatious displays of piety, strapping on their religion much as one would strap on a peg-leg, but they have neither power nor legitimacy with the Risen Saviour.

Unity among Christians can be achieved, but it can never come at the expense of moral purity or theological integrity. The Apostle to the Gentiles has a great deal to say about unity, but we must not forget that he also has a great deal to say about purity, which is closely tied to the neglected subject of holiness. We who follow the Risen Lord of Glory are often called “saints”—that is, holy ones, sanctified ones. We dare not imagine that we can achieve unity while ignoring holiness.

In His High Priestly prayer, Jesus asked the Father to grant that unity would reign among His followers. The unity He requested was contingent upon theological integrity. Without theological integrity, there would never be unity. And yet, liberal churches continue to imagine that merely claiming to be Christian will somehow bring about unity. However, the unity they seek is best described as commodity with the world. And because of their refusal to accept the Word, they fall under the censure of God’s Spirit, Who directed the Apostle of Love to write, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” [1 JOHN 2:15-17].

In saying this, the Apostle John demonstrated that he was in agreement with the Apostle to the Gentiles, who wrote, “The appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away” [1 CORINTHIANS 7:29-31].