We see our nation being divided over many issues. The religious world as a whole remains divided. There are at least three groups in Iraq that are trying to exalt their position. The Catholic Church is beset by divisions of one kind or another. The world of the Protestants is no less divided. The Bible declares that God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33). We can point to all these groups and say the problem is the standard that is used. When we turn to the Lord’s people we, likewise, see divisions of one kind or another. The problem is the standard that we use.
As Christians we are called upon by God to keep (work at) the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3). We recognized that there are some issues that are not matters of faith (Romans 14 and 15). These matters allow us to each grow in our faith and trust in God. The unity in these issues is that we have the proper attitude toward those who make be weaker or stronger than us. The matters of faith require us to all speak the same thing and be of the same judgment. Baptism saves us (1 Peter 3:21). If I teach something other than that, I have left the standard of the Word of God.
An example for us is the teaching in the book of Ezekiel chapter 37. At the time of the writing of this chapter Israel had long gone into Assyrian captivity and Jerusalem had been sacked and burned. God asks Ezekiel about a valley of dry bones. God asks him, can these bones live (verse 3). God takes him through the process of the bones coming together, receiving flesh and then breath. After this shaking the message is clear that yes they can live again. God does not leave us a mystery as to what is meant. Ezekiel was to take two sticks. He was to write the name of Judah on one and the name of Israel on the other (verses 15,16). In verse 17 the two sticks would be joined together.
When the Jews came back from Babylonian captivity there is no statement about this kind of unity. In fact, the ten tribes of Israel never did come back from Assyrian captivity. The meaning then here must refer to something else. When we come to verse 24, there will be one King over them and they shall have one Shepherd. The King and Shepherd could be no other one but Jesus the Christ. Jesus would say that He had other sheep not of this fold but that they could come into the one fold and there would be one fold and one Shepherd (John 10:16). The church or kingdom began in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. The gospel on that occasion was extended to the Jews and proselytes (Acts 2:10). It was not extended to the Gentiles.
Some ten years later it did come to the Gentiles through the preaching of Peter to the house of Cornelius (Acts 10). Many years would pass as Jewish Christians dealt with the meaning back in Acts 2:39 of “all them that were afar off”. The law of Moses was removed at the cross of Christ (Colossians 2:14). The will of Christ could not come into effect until after His death (Heb. 9:1,17). In Acts 2 that will came into effect.
The transition period was for Jews to come to know the meaning of those that “were afar off, that is the Gentiles. Until Jerusalem fell in A.D. 70 the church was treated as some kind of adjunct to the law of Moses. When Jerusalem fell in A.D. 70 so ended animal sacrifices, yearly trips to Jerusalem and the laws about the Sabbath. God was able to bring together the “wolf and the lamb” (Isaiah 11:6). How was He able to do this? Because the one single standard was God Himself who cannot lie (Heb. 6:18).
God brought together the natural enemies of the Jews and Gentiles through His Son, Jesus the Christ. In a world severely damaged by division how much the world needs God and His Son to bring unity. The Bible is relevant in every generation. If God could bring together the Jew and the Gentile, He can bring together all people and individuals who will accept God as the only standard. That standard is reflected in the written Word we call the Bible. Let us all strive for unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.