There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Summary: This was not an easy meditation to write. I will warn you right now that you might not like it. If you don’t like it, I hope you will be patient until the end and gently correct my thinking in the comments.
This passage is thematic, and the theme is “oneness.” There are no “bodies” in Christ, only body parts. We keep our identities, but we lose our sense of separateness.
This is hard for us as individuals to understand. We are a people who suffer conflict on every front. Whether between husband and wife, father and child, or parent and grandparent; conflict is common. Our neighbors are not always neighborly. Our leaders are often in conflict with each other. Conflict exists everywhere in our society.
Do you want to see more examples? Put your opinions on social media. It doesn’t matter what your opinions are. The likelihood is that there is someone out there who will disagree with what you say, and they are happy to let you know about it.
Oneness, of the kind Paul points us to, is not something we are used to.
Even in the church, oneness is elusive. Many churches claim to honor Jesus, but disagree on how to honor him. It is common for people of one faith to point to those in another and smugly say, “They’re not saved.” When we ask “Why?” the answer is, “They don’t believe the right thing.”
Are we saved by what we believe or by who we know?
I realize that these words might offend some people. If I have offended you, I hope you will be generous and forgive me. I don’t intend to offend. Yet, looking at Paul’s words, I can’t help but wonder, “Who is included in the ‘one body’ he writes about?”
And what about the “one faith?”
The Bible includes strong words about people who do not hold to the correct teachings about God. Peter writes:
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.” (2 Peter 2:1)
Peter’s words echo many statements by Paul that are similar. Yet, Paul also writes:
“But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.” (Philippians 1:18)
So if Christ is preached by someone who has “false motives,” and the one who listens swallows the good with the bad, are they then condemned because they don’t believe the “right way?”
As we look out over the landscape of those who believe in Jesus and those who don’t yet know him, I hope that we look with an eye that seeks oneness.
Application: Compare God’s acceptance of us with our faults with our acceptance of others.
Food for Thought: What is more important, to trust in Jesus or to believe the right things about Jesus?
I forgive you Jeff.
What is more important, to trust in Jesus or to believe the right things about Jesus?
Believe in the right things about Jesus. Not quite sure why yet. I have to ponder more about it. Something about knowing and trusting that you’ll be forgiven but believing and knowing the right things, so you won’t need forgiveness all the time.
Sorry I’m stuck on the forgiving because it’s something I’ve been studying and trying to do. I’ll have a better scripture based answer later.
Tim,
No need for apologies! The questions are intended to make us think. They make me think, too!
And thank you for forgiving me! That feels nice! Keep up the good work!!
I believe Napoleon Bonaparte lived, wrote, spoke, went on campaigns, but I don’t know him. I may know about him.
I also believe Jesus of Nazareth lived, wrote, spoke, preached, healed, cast out, and died on the cross. These too are things I know about Him. But I also know Him. For a very large part of my adult life I relied on the plan of salvation as a sort of contract between myself and God. I believed that as long as I had said “the right words,” I was “locked in.” My walk then was really me playing a role. I tried to do the right things, say the right things, but in the end they were fruitless towards knowing the love of God. I came to a place where I prayed to God and told Him that I didn’t feel His presence in my life and I wanted to feel His presence in my life. That was the beginning of my true relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. There was a lot of “pruning” after that moment, and a lot of reading God’s Word, meditation on it, long nights of thinking about what was being laid on my heart. Long nights of deciding what I believed, and what the Word meant in my life. I have had people that I have shared this testimony with offer me conjecture that it means I wasn’t really saved before, and I have had people offer me conjecture that I really was, but wasn’t walking in the Spirit. I don’t really care. Oh, I did care at one point, but I don’t now. I believe God had His hand on me the entire time, before, after, now, and for eternity. It was me that was the problem in our relationship. Now the words contained in the plan of salvation live in my heart. The the words and meaning behind the words. The Living Words.
John 20:31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
I know Jesus lives because He lives in me. I know His Word is true because I see it working in my life. I first believed, but then I trusted. One may say “aren’t those the same?” In my heart they seem like two separate, but interconnected things. In my heart the space between those two things seems like the base of a tree verses the top of a tree.
What is more important, to trust in Jesus or to believe the right things about Jesus?
It is important to believe what the Bible says about Jesus. It is equally important to trust in Jesus. Both are tied together, and both grow, but in different measures. I find that the Holy Spirit fortifies my beliefs, things I thought I had “nailed down” but He says we still need to work on these. They bring me closer to Jesus. I pray for things, and sometimes my prayers are answered in a way that I know it is Jesus. Like one of those contraptions where the bowling ball rolls down the rail, hits a swing arm, that lights a candle, burning a string to release a balloon that sails to a button, that turns a light on. All the while I don’t see it, but I am walking in the Spirit. Afterwards I realize it. That fortifies my trust in Him. I can also see how the “bowling ball, rail, swing arm, candle, string, and button” were others in my life that God was working in their lives. Their part in my trust was their part in their trust, and I in theirs. A beautiful orchestration of God’s Spirit.
Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
2 Corinthians 5:7 For we live by faith, not by sight.
Chris,
Thank you for sharing your story with us. It is beautifully said. I like how you tie it all together with, “I believe God had His hand on me the entire time, before, after, now, and for eternity.” This seems to me to be a very biblical truth statement. (See, for example, Romans 8:29)
I agree with CH in that both are important.
If I know about Jesus but do not know Him as Savior then all is lost (Matthew 7: 21 – 23 is the famous passage often quoted).
If I want to know Him better then I should know about Him. Read the book by Him and about Him. If I want to know my wife better I should want to learn everything about her. If she wrote me a book to know her better but I was too lazy to read it, she may question my sincerity to know her better.
Thanks, Rich!
It is really important to know Jesus and find out more about him. We are so blessed to have God’s Word in its fullness along with the Holy Spirit to lead us.
06-16-2023, What is more important, to trust in Jesus or to believe the right things about Jesus?
Our salvation comes as we trust and act on the convicting power of the Holy Spirit regarding our sins, His righteousness and judgement to come, and in faith. We repent, turn from our sins, to God as our source of power over sin.
John 1:12, 3:16, 16:8, 14:6, 1 John 5:13
The more we trust someone, the more we seek to know them, and the closer we let them get to us. Our making the willful choice to trust that God will do what He promises, is at the heart of an intimate relationship with Him. God knows us at a deep level, and to effectively serve within His will requires we seek to know and understand Him at a deep level.
1 John 2:3, And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
Mark 12:29-30, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is followed by His 2nd commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26, Jesus tells us that anyone who wants to follow Him must love Him more than everything and everyone else.
God has chosen His priorities for our salvation and growth in faith and knowledge. We must respond by accepting His calling by the Holy Spirit, then we must grow in Christ so He can minister to the world through each of us.
Both are equally important, they simply must occur in a specific order, determined by God so we will be at peace and effective as His will is being done through us.
Ron,
You have an interesting take on this today: “Both are equally important, they simply must occur in a specific order.”
I think there is a lot of truth in this statement. As God draws us closer to him, he also reveals himself to us in greater detail.
I’m late to the game, but I’m still going to participate.
What is more important, to trust in Jesus or to believe the right things about Jesus?
Both. But the right things part is defined by God.
Did God say that we must confess our sin to a priest in a box to be forgiven? No, so that isn’t how one is forgiven. But it also isn’t harmful to have someone walk with you through the battle of leaving a sin behind. Someone who is Catholic and believes they are forgiven because of a priest in a box, doesn’t have faith in Christ, but in the priest, but if they believe that Jesus forgives and the priest in the box is the avenue to overcoming sin, they may have saving faith indeed. Do I know by looking at them which one it is? No. But believing the right thing will make the difference for eternity.
I pick on the Catholics because this is an obvious issue. There are people in our own church with different situations but similar distinctions in the situation. Sometimes it’s harder to see the line between a simple misunderstanding of a harmless outlying piece of scripture and a cult.
I was once in a smallish group where the pastor let the group take the conversation for a while. The question was about prayer (trying to disect how it works a bit too much in my opinion) we didn’t know the answer so an assumption was made in order to move on, but it prompted another assumption, and another, at first it seemed harmless, but eventually the pastor had to step in because the assumptions stacking was getting dangerous. Maybe not for a good portion of us, but those who didn’t have a foundation to keep them from going over the edge with it all.
God makes the rules, He draws the lines. My point is only that they are there and sometimes we’re oblivious to how close we were to danger.
I want to highlight the passage you used “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.” (Philippians 1:18)
This is talking about the motives behind telling someone the gospel, not changing it. The attitudes I see implied in the whole passage seem to say two thing: 1, that someone might be preaching the gospel without believing “can you believe this Paul guy? He’s been saying this. ” and then they accidentally make someone search out to know more and they come to faith, or 2, that someone might be trying to compete with Paul. I actually get this funny picture of someone trying to be like “I led 14 people to Christ this week” “Cool, I hear Paul led 16 more guards to Christ” “What?! How is he still meeting new ones? He’s in the same jail!”
Who knows, it’s only implied. But he is specific about the problem being the motive of the preaching, not the preaching itself being a problem. Truth is still being taught.
Lastly, I want to remind you that Paul was, shall I say, zealous for the truth. Take the book of Galatians. He attacks the false gospel with a passion! If someone doesn’t believe the right things about Jesus he wouldn’t say, “they say they believe Jesus so it’ll be okay” Heavens, no! He would literally write them a book about what the gospel is really about and pray for them night and day until he heard that they have got it right! It is not the same faith if it’s a different gospel.
But he also doesn’t say, “church split” because of it. He writes calling people to correction, sometimes whole cities he asks them to work together to correct the wayward. Sometimes he corrects specific people, when he knows something specific. I think this is where we’ll find one of the biggest differences, we (culture at large) are more willing to divide God’s church than to go through the work of correcting a brother or sister.
Angela,
Wow! Lots of good stuff here!
I like your phrase “assumption stacking.” That describes well something that gets a lot of us into trouble in our thinking.
I also like your conclusion:
“[We] are more willing to divide God’s church than to go through the work of correcting a brother or sister.”
I think there is something to what you say. Correcting someone else in a biblical fashion requires that we be willing to follow the biblical model:
“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5)
It also requires that we engage each other in love which is going to demand patience, understanding, etc.
So, bravo! Well said! 🙂