A friend and I were talking after Evening Prayer last Monday night about this particular subject: that many Protestant churches are not interested in unity, but are more interested in autonomy. Here are seven reasons for seeking unity within the Body of Christ.
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1. In John 17:20-23 Christ says that He desires for us to be unified. He goes as far as saying that it is for the reason “that the world may believe that you sent me.” He says in verse 21 that Church unity is tantamount to the Trinity!
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2. Autonomy and division could very well withhold Christ from returning, since Paul gives a prophetic statement in Ephesians 5:27: “That He might present her [the Church] to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
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3. Autonomy is the very antithesis of the Gospel (of idolatry and self-service), and so what is a church demonstrating when they refuse to recognize the historic Church (i.e. Roman Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox) as genuine churches (which means they are worth reforming)?
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4. When Paul says to be “one accord” (Philippians 2:2) he was not making a mere suggestion!
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5. The more isolated a person (Church) becomes the more depressed they become (Proverbs 18:1)
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6. Building on another man’s foundation, as Paul puts it in Romans 15:20, especially if the builder is offering a compromised service with all of the typical entertainment vises, is self-seeking and contrary to number 1, above. The modern term for this type of behaviour is called sheep-stealing.
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7. Claiming that your church began sometime well after the apostolic age - even in the Middle Ages - and that it is not required to seek unity with today’s historically-based churches, is to say that the founder of your church is a prophet and that Christians prior to this “prophetic beginning” were not a part of Christ’s body (salvation as we know it).