{"id":1206,"date":"2015-05-11T15:45:47","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T20:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=1206"},"modified":"2015-05-16T20:40:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T01:40:05","slug":"from-unity-to-unity-5-aim-for-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=1206","title":{"rendered":"From Unity to Unity (5): Aim for Unity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Unity5\"<\/a>So we have the unity of the Spirit; we make every effort to keep the unity through the bond of peace; we understand the spiritual basis of unity; and realizing the gift of Christ, we all serve with diverse roles and positions.<\/p>\n

But what do we actually do? What are we trying to achieve? What is the ultimate goal of all our services and ministries?<\/p>\n

If we consider the universal Church with different local churches, organizations and individual believers each doing their part,1<\/a><\/sup> there are a lot of activities going on. Hopefully we are not just busy bodies each doing our own mission<\/span> but are doing what Christ wants us to do before his second coming.<\/p>\n

Still, the question remains: what are we trying to achieve? What is the goal of our ministry?<\/p>\n

The Ephesian passage clearly spells it for us. When Christ gave the gifts as he ascended to heaven,2<\/a><\/sup> he has a purpose\/direction in mind: we are to equip the saints until we all reach maturity <\/span>(4:13).<\/p>\n

The sense of purpose\/direction can be seen by the prepositions used. A direct translation of verses 12-13 is<\/p>\n

for the purpose of<\/span>3<\/a><\/sup> equipping the saints unto<\/span>4<\/a><\/sup> work of ministry, unto<\/span> the building of the body of Christ, until<\/span> we all may reach the unity of the faith and of the knowledge\/understanding of the son of God, unto<\/span> a mature person, unto<\/span> the full\/mature measure of the fullness of Christ.5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

While different\u00a0things are listed, we can easily\u00a0see that\u00a0all are related to the maturity of believers.<\/p>\n

Sometimes there are confusions between long-term goal and short-term goals.6<\/a><\/sup> Other times the confusion might be between means and goal.7<\/a><\/sup> But the long-term and ultimate goal of the Universal Church, in conjunction with the Great Commission of making disciples of all nations\u00a0(Mat 28:18-29), should be “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (vv. 4:12-13)<\/p>\n

May the Church of God continue to minister faithfully as called.<\/p>\n

PS: I titled this article “Aim for Unity” as taken from v. 13, but it is clear from the context that this is not just the human bond that we usually think of when we talk about unity. Rather, it is a “unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God.<\/span>” We will get into this in next article.<\/p>\n

\n

1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.<\/span><\/em>
\n2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.<\/span><\/em>
\n3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.<\/span><\/em>
\n4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;<\/span><\/em>
\n5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;<\/span><\/em>
\n6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.<\/span><\/em>
\n7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.<\/em>
\n8 This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.”<\/em><\/span>
\n9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?<\/em><\/span>
\n10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)<\/em><\/span>
\n11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,<\/em><\/span>
\n12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up<\/em><\/span>
\n13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.<\/em><\/span>
\n14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.<\/span><\/em>
\n15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ.<\/span><\/em>
\n16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

(Eph 4:1-16)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So we have the unity of the Spirit; we make every effort to keep the unity through the bond of peace; we understand the spiritual basis of unity; and realizing the gift of Christ, we all serve with diverse roles and positions. But what do we actually do? What are we trying to achieve? What is the ultimate goal of …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,23,4,60],"class_list":["post-1206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ephesians","tag-bible-study","tag-church","tag-ephesians-2","tag-unity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1206"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1235,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions\/1235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}