Yet another aspect of this single statement of Jesus Christ is the fact that it must be possible for true believers in Jesus Christ to fall out of union with one another and yet remain true believers in Jesus Christ. If Jesus says nothing in vain, then this must follow logically that He would not have prayed for the unity of His followers. It would not have been necessary for Him to do so if those who believed simply stopped being believers the moment they fell into disunity with the Church that He founded.
There is another aspect of this as well. Some believe that the Bible does not say that there is only one true Church. While it is true enough that the Bible doesn't say it in this way, it is also true that the Bible teaches that the Church must be one. A couple of examples of this would be found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 4, verses 1 - 6. In this passage Paul says that "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. With all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, and one baptism; One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
This passage also indicates that disunity is possible among those with a saving faith in Christ Jesus. Yet at the same time, it clearly indicates that there is One Body, One Spirit in Christ Jesus: One Lord, Faith, and Baptism. So as such there is one Church and that Church is to work very hard to preserve its unity. If it were not possible for Christians to become disunited, it would not have been necessary for Paul to mention anything about staying united. Nor would it have been necessary if one ceased to have a saving faith when disunity occurred.
There is something very peculiar about Christianity. It seems that whether or not one has a faith which is perfectly "orthodox" in every way, that faith gives life! And it prospers! Satan may have promoted the initial errors which caused a loss of "orthodoxy" but the fact that one believes in Jesus Christ is what seems to cause His power to become manifested in the lives of those who believe.
I must qualify what I am saying by mentioning that there is a true Church founded by Christ Jesus, and within it can be found the fullness of divine truth. It is far better for those who encounter this Church if they accept it, and embrace it, but that with which this Church has been endowed can be found outside of this Church and work toward the Salvation of Man by virtue of the fact that "God wills that all should be saved and come to the Knowledge of the Truth." He may have chosen a Church, but He is free to work outside of that Church's ordinary boundaries.
At this point I feel that it is necessary to bring up a word about the responsibility of those who cause division, as well as those who knowingly depart from the True Church founded by Jesus Christ. It is not my intention to judge anyone, but only to state what is true, for if something is true, it is true for everyone, whether or not they believe the truth of it.
The fact of the matter is, if Christ founded One Church, and willed that it remain one, then those who cause disunity in the Church, or among believers are going against the express will of God. When one goes against His will, he distances himself from his Creator. In fact, he cannot have communion with God, because he has placed himself in opposition to God. For the one who has knowingly done this and refused to repent, there can only be one ultimate end, and this is the same end as for the Devil and his angels; namely, Hell.
It is the same with the one who knowingly leaves the true Church founded by Christ Jesus. This person puts himself in opposition to God's chosen instrument, which is made up of people who are capable of sinning, and has thus placed himself in opposition to God. Having done this, he can no longer be in communion with God, and if he fails to turn from this sin back to God, he will remain out of communion with God for all eternity.
If we are to live the call of Christ to love our neighbors, we must not downplay the importance of the potential for evil that division among Christians brings in its wake, both for those who cause it, and for those of us who embrace it. This statement may seem strange to the reader, since we in our modern culture have grown used to discord and disunity. For example, we turn to the government to solve our disagreements regarding abortion, which is a matter which has sparked violent disagreements. It is also a matter on which God has already spoken. We are forced to put up with rhetoric regarding this very subject from groups which insist that abortion is a decision best left to a woman and her God. What if that God is a false god? Do we then not have the responsibility to shepherd that woman, or any other person who has begun worshipping a false god?
I am compelled, at this point, to mention that the word "false" means not true. Worshipping a false god puts us in communion with that god, or demon, and thus, takes us out of communion with the True God (Rom. 6:16). I have already mentioned where that will lead a person. Incidentally, it will also lead the ones who lead people into falsehood into the same place.
How this relates to the issue of Christian unity may not be obvious at first, but it does, and here is how. If all of Christianity were united in Charity, Faith, and Practice, there would be no room for argument about what is right or wrong, for all would be in agreement about what the True Church, the Agent of Christ on Earth teaches. Since there is, in fact, no agreement about who is the True Church, there is also no agreement about what is the full Saving Truth which must be believed and lived if one is to be saved. If this is the case, then there can be no definite knowledge of whether or not one is following the complete and full truth of Jesus Christ, unless one does the necessary homework ot find out which Church is the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). If one does this, he must not stop short of completing the task because he will cheat himself in the process, falling short of finding the right one.
Another important problem involved in having a huge number of churches who disagree on the truth of Christ Jesus is that they cannot provide a united testimony to Christ Jesus. The effect of this is that those to whom the Church has a mission become frustrated in their search for the Truth which could set them free, and may decide that they want nothing to do with the very God that desires that they be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).
Whether you can comprehend this through my humble musings or not, unity among those who believe in Christ Jesus is absolutely vital to the mission of the Church, which is the mission of Christ. For although judgment is reserved to God alone who judges according to hearts, and not superficially, we need to remember that if one could have had the chance to know the truth, but did not because of our action or lack of action (or unity or lack of unity), we shall be held accountable for his or her not knowing the truth of the Gospel.
At this point I believe that we have established that division among those with faith in Jesus Christ is possible, since Christ prayed for unity. We have also established that it is a serious problem. Since God wills the unity of believers in Jesus, I also believe that true unity is possible. However, before we get to the point of discussing how that will happen, we need to discuss another matter.
That matter is, do we love one another enough to really want Christian Unity? I will refrain from stating an answer to that question, but I will ask a few questions related to it.
If we answer these questions honestly, we will most likely not like everything that we see. We all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, and these sins actually are failures in love. When we fail in love, we separate ourselves from the source of the Truth, and can actually darken our own minds to the point that we simply cannot see the truth.
It is never a mistake to study the scriptures, but one mistake that many people make is that they will study the scriptures and take their own interpretation of them as though it is the authoritative way to understand them. They will never question their own view of the scriptures, even when someone disagrees with them, and demonstrates that their view of a particular passage conflicts with another passage. Others will take one single line or passage from scripture and treat it as if it was the whole Gospel. This is just not the case! In fact, there are many things which Jesus said, which as the Gospel of John puts it, are not written down for there would have been volumes.
I think that there are a few principles to which all Christians need to pay attention. They are as follows:
If one follows these principles, he or she may come into the realization that what is often put forward as Christian Truth is simply someone's personal version of it. As often as this complaint comes up with various groups of Christians, however, it seems that it remains unsolved, for they leave that church, and either join, or found, another, which is someone else's version of Christian Truth. As a consequence, they wind up perpetuating Christian Division. This is certainly not God's will!
So, if we recognize that a church has failings, how are we to deal with it in a way that is in accordance with God's will? First and foremost, I think we need to continue to work on ourselves. We must realize that we are flawed, and in need of God's Mercy. This is an ongoing need, so our repentance must be ongoing. Our own actions will never repay the Debt that we owe Christ Jesus for His sacrifice for us, but whether or not we receive His Grace to continue to grow in Love for Him is dependent upon whether or not we use our actions to block His Grace, or remain open to it. He allows us to do this. Keep in mind, here, that even our desire to repent for sin is an action of His Grace. We respond to it, but He always initiates the action. To claim that this is a one way street where only Christ acts is unscriptural, for He commands certain actions of us. A couple of examples of this is when He tells us Teach all nations, or to Love one another as He has loved us. These are actions. He also bases Salvation upon certain actions, especially in Matt. 25: 31-46, where He tells us that if we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, etc. we have done this for Him. These are actions of Love. Those who neglected to do these things were condemned.
The second thing that I believe we ought to remember is that God Himself founded a Church, and promised that Hell would never conquer it. Therefore, its teaching must remain constant, even as people come to understand more of what its teaching means. This means that we have an obligation to determine if a failing that we see in a church is in that church, in its people, or in ourselves. We covered the fact that we are flawed, and need to repent, but at this point, we are required to do some homework. It needs to be done carefully, and prayerfully, and always with humility.
What type of homework is this that I am saying we must do? This is simple. It stands to reason that if Jesus founded a Church, and if the Bible alone is open to extremely wide swings in interpretation, then that Church founded by Jesus must, in fact, have interpreted the Old Testament, Gospels, and Apostolic Writings in a way that was united. Of course, there were moments when people let their human way of understanding take over, but at these moments, the Apostles and their appointed successors would have corrected these people. It is also reasonable to assume that some of these corrections would have occurred in written form, especially since we have models for this in the Apostolic Writings.
If this is so, then we must follow the ancient paper trail, and by this, we may come to recognize what the Teaching of the Church was in the days just after Christ Jesus sent the Holy Spirit upon His Church. At this point, a warning must be issued to all who would take this course of action. Beware! Not everyone who has available copies of the Early Church writings has the best translation, and not all commentaries on these writings are of equal value. It would behoove the reader to look up the words used in the translations of the ancient writings in a dictionary. An unabridged dictionary is preferrable, although, in a pinch, any dictionary is better than none at all.
Another thing that I would encourage in the honest pursuit of Christian Unity is the idea that God loves us so much that He would not leave us all alone with only a book to guide us, especially if it is possible to have multiple and conflicting interpretations from that book. He loves us so much that He wou6ld make sure that His mission, and His Glory is safeguarded for us. He promised as much when He said the gates of Hell would not prevail against His Church family (Matt. 16: 18). It is not His will for us to be separated, but rather to be a united family! Through our love for one another in His family, we teach the world to love Him.