Is Unity In The Church All-Inclusive?

Some believe unity in the church should extend to all denominations or at least a few. If this is true, where do we draw the line? Where does God draw the line? We are to have one faith as Christians. I Corinthians 1:10 says that it is possible for everyone to be of the same mind and judgement. This is contrary to what most people will say – that there is no way people will interpret the Bible the same way as everyone else. They believe that people aren’t wrong when they believe differently, they just have differences in opinion.

There is only one body who is going to heaven. This body won’t include the majority of people –Matthew 7:13-14. There will be lots of people who thought they were included in this body, but will find out on the day of judgement that they were not –Matthew 7:22-23. Inclusion in this body is gained by the one baptism –Ephesians 4:4-6. We get into this body one way – baptism for the remission of sins –Acts 2:37-38. Those who are not cleansed by Christ’s blood cannot enter heaven because His blood continues to cleanse us of our sins. Sin separates us from God –Romans 6:23.

So this is how we become part of the unified body of Christ. Now how do we stay in it? We can’t continue in sin. To do so would not be repentance –Matthew 3:8. We must continually study God’s word –Acts 17:10-11. II Timothy 3:16-17 says that if I study the Bible, I should be able to glean everything I need to know for life as a Christian. God has given me everything I need. My job is to study what he wants me to do and follow through with obedience.

Everyone who reads the Bible and truly searches for the truth will find it. This is a promise from God –Matthew 7:7. The Bible is absolute truth. If not, then God doesn’t know what He’s talking about, and the Bible is irrelevant. This being the case, you can’t have one set of beliefs that is “true” and a different set of beliefs that is also “true”. God compares His word to a seed. A seed produces the same thing over and over again. It doesn’t change. God’s church today should be following the same model it followed when it was first started.

God wants His Christians to be unified. He hates division. Those who cause division in the church are sinning –Galatians 5:19-21, and they won’t be in heaven. So obviously if they won’t be in heaven, their followers won’t be in heaven either. We are supposed to know who they are and avoid them –Romans 16:17. Additionally, these divisive people are to only have 1 or 2 warnings and then we are to leave them alone and have nothing to do with them –Titus 3:9-10.

We can have unity when we don’t ignore the Bible and the commands of God. Being united in error is not what God intended. We are united in truth through God’s word.