Seeking the Unity of the Church (5)

"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:1-3).

We have discussed this passage in the last four issues. Last time I stressed that if we are to keep the unity of the Spirit as manifested in the church, we must make the church of which we are members the centre of all our lives. The church must never be a peripheral institution. It must control and regulate all our life in the world.

The various Christian virtues that the text mentions are intended to stress this very fact. The apostle says that, in order to keep the unity of the Spirit, we must be characterized by "all lowliness and meekness," by "longsuffering," by "forbearing one another in love."

The apostle refers, in these virtues, to our relationship to God first of all. This is especially stressed by the word "lowliness." In our relationship to God we are to be lowly. What does this mean? It means that each of us considers the fact that we are members of the church of Christ by sovereign grace. We have not chosen to join the church. We have not enlisted in the armies of Christ. We have not made ourselves a part of the church, nor have we done anything to merit a place in that church.

The church of Christ is the most wonderful institution in the world. It is the earthly manifestation of the body of Christ. It is the gathering of those whom God chose from eternity. It is the body for whom Christ gave His life in the sufferings of Hell. It is the covenant people of God, the redeemed of Christ, the object of God's everlasting love, the people in whom the Lord delights. It is destined to live with God in perfect covenant fellowship in the kingdom yet to come.

God has graciously and sovereignly made us members of that church. We have not deserved it, but have done all to forfeit our right to God's favor. Membership in the church is a free gift of God to us poor and undeserving sinners. It is grace alone that has given us such blessedness.  Indeed, this is what Paul refers to when he urges us to walk worthy of our calling. Our calling is God's gracious, irresistible and efficacious calling by which we are brought out of the fellowship of the world and Hell, into the fellowship of the church. Now, Paul says, conscious of this, walk worthy of that calling!

How is it possible that anyone, captured by the wonder of this, should be anything but very lowly before God and before his fellow saints? All we can do, overwhelmed by the greatness of this wonder, is fall on our faces on the earth to adore the name of our great God.

And so we are to be meek in relation to each other. Paul explains that more fully in Philippians 2:3-5: "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."

In meekness we also live in peace with our fellow saints. We esteem them better than ourselves and seek their good. Specifically that means that we are longsuffering, and that we forbear each other.

To be longsuffering is to suffer along with the sufferings of our fellow saints, i.e., it is to carry, in so far as we are able, their great burdens of suffering and pain. It is to make their anguish ours. It is to be truly sympathetic in word and deed.

And this, in turn, requires that we forbear one another. That is, to put it bluntly, that we put up with each other and with each other's oddities and eccentricities. There are always people in the church who annoy us. They have scratchy personalities and are blustery and windy. They are know-it-alls who seem to think they have a corner on everything worth knowing. In addition to these "character-faults," they seem to us to have sins that they ought to have overcome by now.

The trouble is that we forget that what we dislike in others is equally true of our selves. We expect others to overlook our weaknesses, but refuse to overlook the weaknesses of others. We are blind to our own faults and sins, but extremely sensitive to the sins of others.

For the sake of the unity of the church and peace in Jerusalem, we must forbear one another. Even with respect to sin in others, we assume that, because we are all sinful and far from perfect, our fellow saints confess their sins and struggle against them. We must assume this unless we have good reason to suppose that they do not. But being the chief of sinners ourselves, we ought to be able to forbear others in their weaknesses.

How the Holy Spirit is able to penetrate our hearts and lay bare our weaknesses!

And so all these spiritual virtues are necessary to keep the unity of the Spirit. Without them the church is soon torn by discord, envy, strife, bitterness and schism. And not only do we personally suffer because the church cannot do its work, but we make it impossible for our children and grandchildren to be nourished and fed by mother church who nurtures us until we are in glory.

And so we ought all to consider our calling with respect to this urgent admonition of Scripture. May God give us grace that we may humbly receive this as God's Word to each one of us.