If you look at the definition of ‘divide and conquer’ you
will likely find “The intentional strategy of maintaining control over others by
encouraging dissent and division between them.”
It’s a formula for success applied by many.
A formula for success applied by many evil people…..including
the evil one.
In the Church, we are to be different, we are encouraged to be of like mind, we are to be one Church.
As believers in Christ we are to pursue the unity of our faith. We are to be of one mind as there is but one
Church with Jesus Christ as the head. We all share the same gospel as there is only one gospel that is entirely about the completed work of Jesus Christ. The
Apostle Paul encouraged the Church often to be one and in most of his epistles he
has something to say about maintaining this unity.
In Ephesians 4:4-6 Paul says. “There is one body and one
Spirit—just as you were called to the one
hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and
through all and in all.
Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to slip into division and in the Church, we have had nearly a 2,000 year history of division, distrust, legalism, arrogance
and parochial interests as a result of both well-meaning leaders as well as those that
are despicable. The result is the same –
they all want us to believe that others that don’t believe or behave exactly like we
do, don’t belong.
All too often, the way the church has tried to embrace
oneness is through conformity. The thinking is that if we can only get people to worship the same
way or baptize the same way or read the same Bibles perhaps we can be one.
This is always the wrong approach.
The Church is to be diverse, not uniform.
Paul told the Galatians, “For in Christ Jesus you are
all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into
Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's
offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Gal 3:26-29)
This doesn’t mean that the Jew stops being a Jew, that the
Greek no longer is Greek. Actually,
much of the early church was made up of both Jews and slaves and these slaves didn’t just become free
men and women. However, slave and free became one in Christ. We need to embrace our diversity and understand that because we all share one Gospel and one faith, while we may be diverse we are still one Church.
Jesus prayed that we would be one, “So that the world would
believe” that the Father had sent him.
Being united in Christ is not a suggestion, it is our
obligation. It is only when the Church becomes One that we can experience the ultimate fulfillment
of the Great Commission to take the gospel to all people.
Pray that it may be so with you: unity through diversity; one Church through the one Gospel.
