Arriving at the Oneness of the Faith in the Church Life as a Living in the Body

When we believe into the Lord Jesus Christ being captured by His beauty and His love through the gospel, we love the Lord with all of our heart and we accept the faith.

We accept the fact that we are saved by grace through faith, and we believe into the Lord Jesus as our Lord and Savior, thanking Him that He died for us because He loved us so much.

All that we had when we first believed into the Lord was the faith: we held to the faith, we loved the Lord, and we loved the brothers and the sisters.

But as we went on with the Lord, we started reading the Bible, studying spiritual books, and meeting with other believers, and we became quite complicated by taking in doctrines, teachings, and concepts.

Even though we were so pure in the beginning, believing into the Lord and in His redemptive work, after a while we hold more to some specific teachings, doctrines, and practices than to the faith.

If only all the believers would return to the faith – the person and work of Jesus Christ, our Savior – and hold as special no other teaching or doctrine, we would all arrive at the oneness of the faith.

But many believers prefer a certain way of meeting and worshipping God, specific doctrines and teachings, certain practices to serve God and meet, and so many other things besides Christ, and so there are many divisions in the Body of Christ.

All believers are one in reality whenever they exercise their spirit and keep the oneness of the Spirit, but not all believers are one in practicality because they hold to many other things besides the faith and they don’t have a full knowledge of the Son of God.

May the Lord have mercy on us that we may be those who are diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit, grow in life daily, hold only to THE FAITH – the person and work of Christ – and arrive to the full knowledge of the Son of God.

The more we know Christ in our experience in His all-inclusiveness and all-extensiveness, the more we drop other doctrines, practices, and teachings that divide us and hold to the faith, receiving all believers as God and Christ receives them.

Arriving to the Oneness in Practicality, the Oneness of the Faith

The oneness in practicality is the oneness of the faith of which Paul speaks in Eph. 4:13. This faith is not the act of our believing but the object of our belief, the wonderful person of Christ and His redemptive work.

Such a faith we are charged to keep, contend for, and not misaim concerning it (1 Tim. 1:19; 6:10, 12, 21; Jude 3). May we be those who don’t pay MORE attention to teachings or doctrines that differentiate us from other believers than to the faith, which saves us and makes us one.

May we accept the Lord’s perfecting work through the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers so that we may care for the unique faith concerning Christ and His redemptive work.

We may love the Lord, care for His Body, and be burdened for the preaching of the gospel, but if we emphasize any doctrine, teaching, or practice more than the faith, we will end up being divisive in the Body of Christ.

We need to first be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit and then go on the journey toward the oneness of the faith by growing in life and knowing Christ in a subjective way.

Nothing causes us to be saved but the faith, the person and work of Christ. When Peter saw the vision of Christ, the Son of the living God, he was captured and could not hold to anything else but Christ (Matt. 16:16).

If all Christians would come back from all the different doctrinal issues and give up their theological preferences to hold only to the faith – the person and work of Christ – then all Christians would practically be one.

Unfortunately most Christians still prefer doctrines and practices such as baptism by immersion, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, healing and deliverance, praise and worship service, keeping the Sabbath and some dietary regulations, having a loud (or a quiet) service meeting, and many other things – which are NOT the faith, but are like “little toys” which Christians play with and hold sometimes even above THE FAITH.

Even in the church life in the Lord’s recovery, the helpful practices of pray-reading the word of God, calling on the name of the Lord, and practicing the God-ordained way are very good, but they are NOT the faith; we should not hold them above the faith, and we should not base our receiving others on whether they practice these or not.

As long as someone is washed by the blood of Christ and regenerated by the Spirit, and as long as he believes into the Lord Jesus, we should receive him.

In the church life we have only one thing that is special; our speciality is the faith. For receiving the believers, to insist on anything besides the faith is to be divisive (see Rom. 14:1; 15:7). We need to receive the other believers as Christ and God receives them, based upon their faith in Christ. Our special thing in the church life is THE FAITH.

We do not denominate ourselves and we don’t hold to our preferences, tastes, and special practices. Even though we enjoy much help rendered by practices such as calling on the Lord, pray-reading the word, and the God-ordained way, these are not the faith, and we don’t hold them as our speciality.

However, if we emphasize these practices more than the person of Christ and His redemptive work, if we insist that others should do the same things we do, we are liable to be divisive.

We should not require anything more than the belief in Christ and His redemptive work from someone. May we all arrive at the oneness of the faith, the oneness in practicality!

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming as a man to die for us and regenerate us with Your divine life, making us sons of God and believers in Christ. Lord, keep us growing in the divine life as we keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. Keep us going on the journey toward the oneness of the faith. Save us from emphasizing any doctrine or practice apart from the common faith given to all the saints. Lord, for the sake of the church life as a living in the Body of Christ, bring us on to the oneness in practicality, the oneness of the faith!

Arriving to the Full Knowledge of the Son of God

The Lord has been patiently waiting for His believers to “grow up” in the divine life until they all arrive to the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. The full knowledge of the Son of God is the apprehension of the revelation concerning the Son of God for our experience (see Matt. 16:16).

We need to come back to not only to the person and work of Christ but also to a rich and full experience of the all-inclusive and all-extensive Christ, knowing Him in full.

Because many believers’ experience of Christ is limited and lacking, they cannot be one. Many believers know Christ merely as their Lord, Savior, Master, or Shepherd, but their knowledge and enjoyment of Christ is very limited.

May the Lord recover our enjoyment, knowledge, and experience of Christ so that we may know Him as the all-inclusive Christ. If we have the full knowledge of Christ, the Son of God, we will spontaneously be one with other believers and bring them to know the Son of God.

Our unique center is not doctrines, teachings, or practices – as good and as scriptural as they may be; our center is Christ, the Son of God. To arrive at the oneness of the faith is to arrive at the oneness of the full knowledge of the Son of God, and this is to arrive at a full-grown man experientially, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

If we don’t know Christ in full, our oneness is very thin, and anything can shake it. But if we know Christ in full in His all-inclusiveness, our oneness is supported by a strong pillar, and nothing can shake us, because we know Christ.

The oneness of the faith altogether depends on the full knowledge of the Son of God. Only when we take Christ as the center and we focus on Him only can we arrive at the oneness of the faith – for only in the Son of God can our faith be one.

We need to know Christ and have Him revealed in us (Gal. 1:15-16). We need to know Christ, enjoy Him, and experience Him until it is no longer we who live but Christ lives in us (Gal. 2:20) and He is formed in us (Gal. 4:4, 6).

Our focus and our center should be Christ so that when others come among us they would know and see only Christ and His redemptive work (1 Cor. 2:2).

May the Lord have a way to recover many of His believers to Christ Himself, having Him as their center and goal, so that they would know Him subjectively, experience Him, and advance in their knowledge of Christ until we all know Him in full and reach the oneness in practicality.

Lord Jesus, You are our center and focus. We want to know You, enjoy You, and experience You for the church life as a living of the Body of Christ. Lord, we take You as our center, and we focus on You until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God. Lord, amen, bring many believers on to maturity in their growth in life that they may know You in full and focus only on the faith – the wonderful Person and Work of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 42, 45-46, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 5 / msg 5, Crucial Experiences in the Practice of the Church Life (2) – Aspects of the Church Life as a Living in the Body of Christ, the One New Man.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The unity of Church is but / The saints in oneness living; / The Spirit which indwelleth them / This oneness ever giving. / Thus it is realized and called / The unity of Spirit; / ’Tis based upon the common faith / Which all the saints inherit. (Hymns #831)
  # Christ the Son of God and His redemptive deed / Are the saving faith which is our only creed. / All the other doctrines do not faith comprise; / Christ, His work and person, only qualifies. (Hymns #832)
  # My life-long quest is just to know Thee / Till more and more subjectively, / I would arrive at the full knowledge, / Of all the excellence of Thee. (Song on Knowing Christ)