One God & One Lord

Believe in God and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. “Believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1).

To believe in “the name” of Jesus Christ (1 John 3:23, 1 John 5:13) is, I believe, to recognize Christ as Lord in your heart and of your life (1 Peter 3:15, 2 Corinthians 4:5), believing that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9).

The commandment of God is to believe in His Son, and the commandment of the Son is to love one another. It’s as simple as that.

• 1 John 3:21-23 NASB
  (21) Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;
  (22) and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
  (23) This is His (God’s) commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He (Jesus) commanded us.

Simplicity and Purity of Devotion to Christ

• 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 NASB
  (3) But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
  (4) For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.

Did you ever consider that all the different doctrines that are out there, and the emphasis on what one must believe in order to be “right,” that very mess of confusion itself is a deception leading us away from the simplicity of Christ?

The commandment of God is to believe in His Son, and the commandment of the Son is to love one another. It’s as simple as that.

The following is quoted from The Unitarian Advocate and Religious Miscellany, Vol. 1—No. 1, January 1830. The text itself is quoted from “the late Bishop Watson.”

“What!” he exclaims, “shall the church of Christ never be freed from the narrow-minded contentions of bigots; from the insults of men who know not what spirit they are of, when they would stint the Omnipotent in the exercise of his mercy, and bar the doors of heaven against every sect but their own? Shall we never learn to think more humbly of ourselves, and less despicably of others? to believe that the Father of the universe accommodates not his judgements to the wretched wranglings of pedantic Theologues; but that every one, who, with an honest intention, and to the best of his ability seeketh the truth, whether he findeth it or not, and worketh righteousness, will be accepted of him? …

“If different men,” he afterwards adds, “in carefully and conscientiously examining the scriptures, should arrive at different conclusions, even on points of the last importance, we trust that God, who alone knows what every man is capable of, will be merciful to his that is in error. We trust that he will pardon the Unitarian, if he be in error, because he has fallen into it from the dread of becoming an Idolater, of giving that glory to another which he conceives to be due to God alone. If the worshipper of Jesus Christ be in an error, we trust that God will pardon his mistake, because he has fallen into it from a dread of disobeying what he conceives to be revealed concerning the nature of the Son, or commanded concerning the honor to be given him. Both are actuated by the same principle—THE FEAR OF GOD; and, though that principle impels them into different roads, it is our hope and belief, that, if they add to their faith charity, they will meet in heaven.”

This one ties in with my earlier article, “Ecumenical Thoughts,” so I’ll end it with the same words in which I ended that one:

Faith working through love, serving Jesus Christ, living in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit: this is the kingdom of God. Instead of bickering, biting, and devouring one another, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24).

I never thought I’d be having them, but I am. Ecumenical thoughts. I’m not talking about a universal ecumenism among religions of the world, to include Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and Muslims. No, I’m talking about only within the realm of Christianity: those groups who believe in God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Those who proclaim Christ as Lord and the only way of eternal salvation.

I participate in online Christian discussion forums and it is truly sad to experience groups of people, all who call on the name of the Lord, accuse one another of the most vile blasphemies, declaring them not to be Christians or not to be saved, or that they belong to a “cult,” with disgust oozing from every letter of the word, even though both sides serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Each group, whether they be Catholic, Protestant, Reformed, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal, Church of Christ, Christadelphian, Lutheran, Baptist, Biblical Unitarian, or even your generic “nondenominational Christian fellowship,” they all believe that they are the true church, the group that has the majority of the truth, the remnant church, the group most certainly headed for heaven. All the others are viewed as apostate or lost or pagan, but with the right teaching can be brought into the fold. And they all think the same thing about each other. It’s a jungle out there, folks.

Why all this diversity of belief? Part of it can be blamed on the accepting as scripture the writings of men and women who came well after the apostles and disciples of Christ, sometimes claiming to be prophets themselves, sometimes not. Even those who never made a claim to being a prophet or inspired of God, their writings have been elevated to that status by those who came after. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have their Watchtower Society, the Mormons have their Joseph Smith, the Seventh Day Adventists have their Ellen G. White, the Presbyterians and other Reformed groups have their John Calvin, the Catholics have their Pope. All of those groups also accept the canon of Scripture, the 66 books of the Bible, as the inspired Word of God. An amazing giant leap toward unity would be seen simply by forsaking ALL non-biblical sources of guidance. Phrases like “but according to Calvin’s Institutes…..” or “it says in the Desire of Ages that…” or “the Vatican council declared…” or “the prophet Lehi said…” or “according to the Nicene Creed….” Away with all extra-biblical pronouncements! If it is not in the Bible, you have no business enforcing it as a necessary doctrine for all believers or quoting these people as spiritual authorities.

Get back to the Bible and stay there. Yes, there will still be differences of interpretation, but at least everyone will have an agreed upon source of truth for productive discussion. And if we don’t see eye-to-eye on some things, we can still love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, because when everything else is put aside, we recognize that we are all desiring to please God by serving His Son Jesus Christ.

But some will say, “but their conception of Christ is different than ours!” That may be so, and all cannot be right. If their conception is derived from the Scriptures alone, their intent is noble even if their conclusion is faulty.

• Mark 9:38-41
  38 John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.”
  39 But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.
  40 “For he who is not against us is for us.
  41 “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.
• Romans 14:17-19
  17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
  18 For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
  19 So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.

Let’s look here not at what the kingdom of God is NOT, but at what it IS: Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. He who serves Christ in that way is acceptable to God.

Is Christ formed in you? (Galatians 4:19) Or do you bite and devour one another?

• Galatians 5:13-16
  13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
  14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”
  15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
  16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

The brethren who constantly bicker and make accusations back and forth because they don’t believe the same things about baptism or communion or hell or spiritual gifts or end time prophecy, I think they have turned their freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. It is the desire of your flesh that wants to war and bite and devour. You are using the Word of God as bait for your flesh. However, in the Spirit, love should be manifest always. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24).

With the variety of beliefs out there, just those based solely on the Bible, I believe we are all pretty much on our own about searching the scriptures and coming to a knowledge of the truth. We can share what we’ve learned with one another. Some may be persuaded, some may not. But why do we judge one another over such matters? I’m not talking about sin, because we are to correct one another regarding sin. But regarding our understanding, to our own Master we will stand or fall. As my friend Paul Kelly says,

At the end of the day God knows who’s right and who’s wrong. We don’t. All we know is that we act and believe on what we read and what we’re told….and we try to make sense of that to the best of our abilities. Whether we’re right or wrong, apart from God, who can say? We just try to do what’s right in the best way we can.

Faith working through love, serving Jesus Christ, living in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit: this is the kingdom of God. Instead of bickering, biting, and devouring one another, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24).

What a question! But for the child of God, it is a question with an easy and obvious answer. Love is supremely important! Here are some reflections on love from the scriptures.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13, puts it quite bluntly: Without love, dear Christian, you are nothing. You can be abundant in spiritual gifts or have faith that can move mountains, but without love, says Paul, you are nothing. You can donate to charity, feed the poor, or take any other action of sacrifice to help others, but if you do it without the motivation of love in your heart, it profits you nothing. Or to put that in the words of Isaiah the prophet, all your righteous deeds are as filthy garments (Isaiah 64:6).

Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 13 to describe the markers of love. If we have the love of God in our hearts, these are the markers of our character: patience, kindness, not jealous, not boastful, not arrogant, we will not act unbecomingly (in other words, we do not act outside the boundaries of love), we are not provoked to anger or improper action, we do not keep track of the times when someone wrongs us, and we do not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoice in the truth.

He goes on to say that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and that love never fails. Wow.

Some want to believe that this agape love that is to characterize the child of God is meant to apply within the body of Christ. In other words, it is how Christians are to be towards one another. This is true in a sense, as Paul writes in Galatians 6:10 that we are to do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. But do note that he wrote “all people.” Jesus said that we are to love even our enemies and to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us and pray for those who mistreat us (Luke 6:27-28).

The apostle John wrote that If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20). And if we can’t love our brothers and sisters in Christ, how can we possibly love our enemies? It begins with God, beloved. When we love God, we will love our brothers and sisters. And if we love God and we love our brothers and sisters, we will love our enemies.

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” What are his commandments? Just read through the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They contain the words that Jesus wants us to keep. And his commandments are God’s commandments because “he whom God has sent speaks the words of God” (John 3:34) and Jesus said that he did not speak on his own initiative, but the Father who sent him commanded him what to say and what to speak (John 12:49).

Whoever keeps his word (the words of Jesus, the commandments of God), in that person the love of God has truly been perfected (1 John 2:5). By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and observe His commandments (1 John 5:2).

Peter speaking to Jesus, said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (John 6:68). How right he was. Jesus himself said, “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63).

• John 12:49-50 NASB
  (49) “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.
  (50) “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

How important is love? The kingdom of God is promised to those who love Him (James 2:5).

We started by defining love from the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, so let’s end with the very last verse of the same chapter:

• 1 Corinthians 13:13 NASB
  (13) But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.