The Apostle Paul advanced in the purpose of our God to the unity of the church in history through the Lord Jesus Christ, who died and rose again for sinners in order to create the new man and a new and better humanity: From chapter 4 of the book of Ephesians the apostle Paul expresses in his letter the new values what they want from her That is to say, that man must not only hear and see what values are expected but also must put them into practice, Paul explains this through the book of Ephesians.
The Christian man has already determined what he has to be according to the divine call. This is for the real and authentic Christian. After this man has received the call of the Lord through his word and the touch of the Holy Spirit, this man who has been called must behave accordingly. On the other hand, the people of God are called to be a people which must manifest a unity and as they are called to be a sacred people, they must express purity. Unity and purity are the two great characteristics that the church must display. The Apostle Paul addresses this issue in his letters showing the kind of unity that God wants his church to have.
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4 Fundamental Bases of Church Unity
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The unity of the church based on love
Love has always been taught as a feeling that comes from the heart, but this is not the case. Love is not a feeling but rather a behavior related to others. The apostle Paul in his prayers expressed these words “Rooted and Grounded in Love”… Paul always wanted the church of Jesus Christ to preserve in Unity and for this he urged it to follow some principles to achieve it, the first was Humility which It was very frowned upon in antiquity since an outstanding aspect of the Jews was that they involved this word with the life of slaves, that is, for them to be humble was to be poor and the Jews were not or did not want to be.
So Paul is teaching them that in order to have a united church humility should prevail among them, but this humility was not being slaves, Jesus was a living example of humility by coming into the world and humiliating himself in the way he did for love of us . If there was discord in the congregation at the same time there was pride, while if harmony prevailed then humility was present.
Following this the apostle also mentions meekness, the philosopher Aristotle considered meekness as the form of moderation. This word was commonly used for domesticated animals, so it is not a synonym for weakness. quite the opposite means kindness of the strongthat is to say that force that is under total control.
Meekness
It is a great quality for a person who has a strong personality, this makes a person of strong character who is his own master and at the same time a servant of others. These two qualities, humility and meekness, form a very important ingredient for the walk of the new man. To see a meek and humble person is to see them in total balance, just as Christ is.
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Other essential qualities to maintain the orchurch unit are:
Patience
A person who possesses this quality has the ability to endure those challenging and problem-provoking people for a long time, just as our God showed us patience through our Lord Jesus Christ, in the word we have many verses in which the Lord teaches us that we must bear with each other, however, we note the detail that it is not only a part that must endure but a patience, mutual tolerance within the congregation in this way Jesus taught that in this way we would have peace among the brothers.
Love
It ends up being a quality that encompasses all of the aforementioned and this is the highest crown of all the virtues, this brings together humility, meekness and patience, which is why it is the most important and must always be in the church of the Lord.
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The unity of the church based on God
Let us note that, unlike religious ecumenism, we are not called to carry out the Unity of the Church, since this being a society made up of human persons, it has a divine origin and it is that the Holy Spirit is the one who carries out the unity in addition to completing it, therefore Therefore, it is not only a human unit but a spiritual unit, which must be maintained by the church. through the bond of peace.
There are seven (7) times that the apostle Paul repeats in three important verses where we discover that the apostle highlights the three persons of the Trinity that are Father (God), Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit. While in the other four remaining ones, they show our experiences as Christians regarding the relationship with these three important people mentioned above, with this discovery we can see three details that make the difference between a religious society and the gospel of Christ, that is, the church..
- Why is there only one body?
Because there is only one Spirit according to Verse 4 of the book of Ephesians. The body represents the Church, as Ephesians chapter 1 verse 23 says.
which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all
The body of Christ which gathers all Jewish and Gentile believers; therefore the Unity of said church is due to the Holy Spirit of God who dwells in it, integrating everyone into a body through baptism. As well said 1 Corinthians 12: 13
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free; and we were all given to drink of the same Spirit.
It is worth noting that no matter how much human beings fight and strive to maintain an organized unit, be it the Roman church or any other, it can never substitute the true and genuine unit of the Holy Spirit of God.
2. Why is there only one hope, only one faith and only one baptism?
Because there is only one Lord according to (v. 5) of the book of Ephesians. Paul speaks of no other than Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only one through whom we can have faith and hope by which we have been baptized in his name. The one in whose coming we live hopeful.
There is a great family that brings us all together because we belong to one God and one heavenly father according to him (v.6). Gathered the whole church in one, we are that family over whom God is the Father and thus we come to be the only family, the only faith, the only hope, the only church, the only Spirit, the only baptism. Numbers of churches cannot be increased any more than gods can be increased, because there is only one God and therefore there must be only one Church.
If the unity of our God is unbreakable and inviolable then the Unity of the Church is too.
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The unity of the church based on the diversity of ministries according to v.7 to 12
While in v.6 of the book of Ephesians he refers to all, in the V. 7 starts with each, so that unity becomes diversity in the church. With this Paul points out that unity should not be misunderstood as an analogy, as if each Christian is a clone of another. On the contrary The Unity of the Church It is interesting for its complexity, both formative and effusive with different natures in which Christ deals with gifts and ministries for mutual benefit. The apostle points out two types of ministries: those that correspond to the foundation of the church and those that concern the building of the church.
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The unity of the church based on maturity and growth according to v. 13 to 16
The purpose of the different ministries is to provide the people with all possible tools for their affirmation and in turn the full building of the body of Christ, which is the church for its vital growth. The Increase and appreciation of the body of Christ It is a fairly long process where three complex stages can be seen. Let’s see in v. 13:
1.- The component of faith and knowledge of Jesus the Son of God.
Let us observe that the unity of the church, even though in one sense it has already been given, in another it must be had as well as something that we must achieve. If unity already exists for the LordHow then can we obtain it as an end? The answer is easy, that is, just as unity needs to be visibly held, it also needs to be fully achieved. There are levels of unity just as there are levels of holiness. And the unity that we must reach one day is that which is complete, which will make possible a genuine faith and a full knowledge of the Son of God.
2.- To become a perfect man.
It is another way of citing this whole unit. It is clear that every follower of Christ has the duty and responsibility to grow to maturity in Jesus, but here it is something collective. The church is figured as a single organismthe body of Jesus Christ and it must grow toward mature, adult stature.
3.- To the measure of the height of the totality of Christ.
Although on the one hand it is collective, on the other, the development depends on the maturity of the members. because the word says that you cannot be fluctuating children, that is, unstable and ignorant. What Paul the apostle wanted to say is that we cannot be one of those who are carried from here to there, what they call strong winds or drift, that is how immature Christians are, those who bring disorder, confusion, without However, their ignorance does not allow them to see the error in which they find themselves, they never become firm in their convictions, they believe in everything they hear, they are not able to resist those crazy things simply because they are pleasant words to hear. This is a sign of immaturity considering that they are people who are not interested in searching the scriptures.
It is important to know that although we must be careful of those who teach nonsense, we must also be careful of extremism, although it is true that we must speak the truth of Christ and many times the truths are not very pleasant It is also true that we must soften these truths but with the love of God and this in turn is strengthened with the truth of God. We must not fall into sentimentality nor into rudeness or doctrinal coldness.
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