Time for Believers to Answer the Call for Unity

Faith Facts

• Christians are called to pursue unity in the Spirit and the bond of peace as Scripture commands.
• The greatest commandments remain unchanged: to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
• Pure and faultless religion involves caring for orphans and widows while remaining unpolluted by the world.

Throughout history, moments have come when people of God arose to say, “It is time.”

They departed for the Promised Land. They marched around Jericho. They gathered on the shores of Galilee and in Jerusalem on Pentecost. They stood unbent in the colosseum.

They heard the echo of Martin Luther’s hammer and began a Reformation. They left for distant lands in search of religious freedom. They gathered at Cane Ridge and began, yet again, a Restoration of the fellowship of believers.

They opened a door to welcome brothers and sisters of color. Not overnight. Not without difficulty or debate. But over and over, they listened to the still, small voice that told them, “It is time.” Time to do something hard.

We believe that again it is time to listen to God’s voice and do hard things. For several years, in different stories and series, different voices and places, we have heard that call. It arrives at a time when secularism is burgeoning, when culture does not support devotion, when division marks our society, our politics, our churches.

None of that should stop us. Because it’s time to find ways to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, even or especially when it challenges our preferences.

It’s time to open our arms of fellowship more broadly. It’s time to recall the greatest commandment and the one like unto it: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

It’s time to recall the meaning of “true religion,” which inherently says something about what it’s not: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Does the church down the block or across town share your history but not your fellowship? It’s time for a conversation.

Is the history of division so dusty and old that no one remembers exactly why it takes two buildings, or more, to house the people of God in a city with just one high school? Have hackles risen so high they conceal the wounds of the Savior? The fellowship that flowed from Cane Ridge diverged into three long ago. And divisions within our own stream have multiplied in ways that should embarrass us all.

We have divided over Bible classes and kitchens, over water fountains and orphanages, over pianos and clapping and whether a woman can stand to pass the tray or must remain seated. We do not make light of those matters. These can be hard conversations. But are these issues central to that greatest commandment or to religion that the Father accepts as pure and faultless?

It’s time to ask if our divisions are helping us care for the downtrodden. Time to work together to love God and our neighbors. Time to share a cup of coffee and join hands in prayerful conversation.

This is a hard thing. But it’s time.

Let us know what you think, please share your thoughts in the comments below.