In this series of articles on the unity of the Church, we have considered passages from Scripture that demonstrate the visible beauty and the breathtaking vision of the unity that binds the redeemed people of God into one. In Psalm 133:1, David exclaims, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.” In John 17:21, our Savior prayed “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.”

The implications are immense. They challenge us to think about how we live out this unity.

In the articles that follow, I shall pass the baton to Jeff Stivason (RPCNA) who will consider how the theme of unity has been developed and explained in our doctrine of the Church. Stephen Steele (RPC Scotland) will provide historical examples of how Reformed Presbyterian denominations have sought to express their unity with each other and with the Christian church more broadly. Then, finally, Robert McCollum (RPC Ireland) will draw out lessons for pastoral ministry and mission.

Before I finish my part in this series, I want to turn our focus to Ephesians 4:1–7, where Paul exhorts the Church to strive “to maintain the unity of the Spirit.”

This exhortation comes at the turning point in Paul’s great letter “to the saints in Ephesus” about the Church. God the Father has exalted the Lord Jesus Christ and made Him head over all things for the sake of the Church (1:22). By his death on the cross, Jesus has created the Church as “one new humanity” (2:15); “a holy temple in the Lord” (2:21); and a manifestation of God’s manifold wisdom “to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (3:10). In the chapters that follow, Paul gives legs to this doctrine. The turning point from theory to practice begins at Ephesians 3:14 (which is a little earlier than most commentators see it) where Paul prays “to the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named” that his readers might be strengthened with power to grasp the immensity of Christ’s love. Pause and allow Paul’s delight in verses 18–19, as well as his doxology in verses 20–21, to sink in.

Pause, but don’t stop. The implications keep coming. In Ephesians 4:1 Paul urges his readers “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” Those whom Paul addresses (the “you” of v. 1) are emphatically plural. This is not the private experience of the believer and the beloved Redeemer that Austin Miles describes in his hymn, “In the Garden.”

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own,

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known!

No, this is the walk of the Church and her Savior. Believers are many and diverse, but they walk as one. Let us now consider how Paul describes this walk.

Paul’s Appeal (4:1–3)

In view of Paul’s exalted vision for the Church (and our Savior’s breathtaking prayer in John 17), Paul’s appeals in verses 2–3 sound very modest indeed. He appeals to his readers to develop two ongoing habits: one is “to bear with one another in love,” while the other is to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” To bear with another person is to put up with their faults and failings. It sounds like a minimalist activity. Few of us would feel a burst of inner warmth at discovering that others bear with us in spite of the fact that we talk too much, always turn up late, or never get around to doing what we have promised to do. Yet this is what Paul urges believers to do. Bear with one another in love!

Likewise, Paul appeals to his readers to strive to maintain the unity that Christ has already created by the working of His Spirit. This is emphatically not the language of William Blake’s visionary anthem “Jerusalem”:

I will not cease from mental fight,

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand:

Till we have built Jerusalem,

In England’s green and pleasant land.

Christ is the builder and chief cornerstone of the Church. His Spirit is the mortar that binds it all together. We are stewards who count it a privilege just to be a doorkeeper in the house of God (see Ps. 84:10), and our job is to strive eagerly to maintain the unity of what Christ has built. We face this challenge by not grieving the Holy Spirit, which explains the significance of the rather basic Christian virtues that Paul urges on his readers in verse 2. Humility describes how we regard our weaknesses. Gentleness (or meekness) describes how we handle our strengths. Patience describes how we treat others.

The great challenge here is that the “others” Paul describes are “the saints we know” and rub shoulders with regularly. As the rhyme goes:

To live above with the saints we love, that is purest glory.

But to live below with the saints we know, ah, that’s another story.

It is easy to imagine ourselves behaving with humility, gentleness, and patience when we dwell with the saints in glory. It may be possible for us to have warm feelings about suffering saints in China or the Middle East. We may even find it comforting to know that Pentecostal churches are making significant advances in Brazil. The hardest challenge is bearing with the saints we know and striving to maintain the unity of our congregations and denominations.

Yet we are to strive. That means doing something that has actual consequences. Initiating actual conversations. Speaking to people who can speak back to us. That means starting with the brothers and sisters with whom we worship in our local congregation.

It does not stop there. From there we work out to congregations within our presbytery, then our denomination, and beyond that to the global family of Reformed Presbyterian Churches. These are the settings in which actualized reciprocity is easiest to achieve. This is (or ought to be) the low-hanging fruit on our ecumenical tree. If we cannot pluck this fruit, we are unlikely to accomplish much, if any, value in the wider church.

Harder questions arise when we consider other Christians in our communities and church traditions with whom we have significant differences in doctrine and practice. What can we do? There are no easy answers to that question, but here are some examples.

In Geelong, Australia, we are blessed in having a number of Bible-believing Presbyterian and Reformed congregations in our neighborhood. Each year we organize Reformation Rally to commemorate the heritage we share. That has been a great blessing.

At a personal level, I have been able to meet with a diverse range of people in various reading groups as we have worked our way through Augustine’s Confessions and other classics of Christian literature. I have been both appalled and excited by what I have heard. No doctrine was compromised, but communication took place. Eyes were opened.

However, I have become increasingly convinced that, if we cannot communicate humbly, patiently, and energetically with those who are closest to us in worship and doctrine, we will simply not develop the skills we need to conduct those more difficult conversations with people whose background we know less well. I have also become convinced that our worldwide family of Reformed Presbyterian Churches offers us opportunities in which to discuss what grassroots biblical ecumenicity looks like. We can walk with congregations in Bangalore, India; Ballyclare, Northern Ireland; and Birmingham, Ala., knowing that they care about us just as we care about them.

Christ’s Foundation (4:4–7)

It is possible for Christians from different countries and diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds to walk as one if we are willing to work at it. Striving to maintain the unity that Christ has created requires energy, imagination, and the willingness to try things that may fail. For that reason, Paul breaks off from his practical application in verses 1–3 and resumes his focus on doctrine—the doctrine of the Church. For a letter writer, whose sentences are often frustratingly long, Paul’s statements in verses 4–6 are staccato. These verses resemble a creed. There is one body, the Church. There is one Spirit, whose effectual calling brings the Church into being. The Lord Jesus is the Church’s only Lord. From Him we receive the faith we believe, and into Him we are baptized. As our Savior reminded us in John 17, the Church’s only Lord is one with the Father in heaven. In Him we are united.

From Him flows the grace that saves us and enables us to serve (v. 7). Serving means using the gifts given us by the Spirit for the mission of the Church. Serving includes praying, giving, encouraging, preaching, leading, enduring, and striving.

Serving is hard work. But Christ has not called us to serve alone. Still less does He call us to serve in our own strength. His grace is sufficient for all things.