The apostles taught the same thing to all the saints in all the places and in all the churches to practice the genuine oneness; the genuine oneness is all-inclusive and comprehensive, including all positive things.
God hates division, for division – no matter how “solid” the reasons for division are – cuts and destroys the corporate expression of Christ, the Body of Christ.
Satan has tried to destroy the church through persecution, but he did not succeed; the more he instigated the different Roman emperors and kings to destroy the Christians, the more they multiplied.
So Satan changed his strategy; he worked within the church through man’s preference, affinities, and eloquence to divide the church so that Christ would not have a corporate expression but His church would be divided.
Division came in due to the different teachings which may be scriptural but are different than God’s economy, which is in faith.
The apostles preached this one thing – God’s economy, Christ and the church, and the Bible calls this “the apostles’ teaching”; whoever teaches something else, no matter how logical or scriptural it may sound, if it doesn’t focus on God’s economy, it is a different teaching.
The way we can be preserved in the oneness of the Body and in the unique testimony of the Lord is by being under the ministry of the apostles, the teaching of the apostles, the unique teaching in the New Testament concerning Christ and the church.
If we teach something a little bit different from God’s economy, something that may be helpful, practical, spiritual, and even scriptural but it is different from God’s economy, we sow the seed that will grow up in division.
May we remain in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles to be kept in the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ, and may we focus on one thing: Christ and the church, the economy of God, the teaching that is for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
May we stay away from those who teach different things, realizing that these different teachings of the dissenting ones are winds used by God’s enemy to distract His people and carry them away from His economy.
The major source of the church’s decline, degradation, and deterioration is the different teachings; the apostles, however, taught the same thing to all the saints in all the places and in all the church, and they kept the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ.
Teaching the Same Thing to all the Saints in all the Places and in all the Churches
The apostles didn’t teach different things from one another; Paul didn’t try his best to be better than Peter and teach differently from him, neither did John “start his own ministry” to be better and higher than Paul.
The apostles taught the same thing to all the saints in all the places and in all the churches (see 1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17; 11:16; 14:33-34).
Whether it was in one part of the world or in another, whether in Judea or in Antioch, whether among the Jews or the Gentiles, the apostles spoke the same thing and taught the same thing to all the saints in all the places and in all the churches.
Also, the Lord Jesus spoke specifically to each of the seven churches in Rev. 2-3, but His word was to all of them, His calling for overcomers was to each of them, and He didn’t teach something differently in one church from another church.
Similarly, we also must teach the same thing in all the churches in every country throughout the earth (Matt. 28:19-20).
We may think that our local church has a particular need, so we may emphasize a certain line in the Bible to meet that need; our focus in doing this, however, should be God’s economy, Christ and the church, and not trying to be different from others.
Whatever we teach from the many aspects of God’s economy, we have to link it and bring it back to God’s economy, teaching only God’s economy to all the saints in all the places and in all the churches.
The Lord Jesus left us with the great commission of discipling the nations by baptizing them into the name of the Triune God and by teaching them everything that He has commanded us.
We disciple people not by teaching them our own teaching but by first baptizing them into the Triune God and then teaching them the healthy teaching of God’s economy.
And behold, the Lord is with us all the days until the consummation of the age! Even right now, today, Christ is with us – He is Emmanuel, God with us!
The Lord is with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), and whenever two or three are gathered into His name, He is in their midst (Matt. 18:20).
There is no thought in the New Testament that a teaching is good for one church and not for the other churches; rather, the New Testament reveals that all the churches were the same in receiving the teachings (Titus 1:9).
Paul taught the same thing as Timothy, and he also instructed Timothy to charge certain ones not to teach different things from God’s economy, which is in faith (1 Tim. 1:3-4).
May we remain in the teaching of the apostles, the economy of God, and may we teach the same thing as the apostles did in all the places to all the saints in all the churches!
Lord Jesus, keep us in the unique ministry of the apostles, the economy of God! May we be constituted with the truth of God’s economy, be infused with Christ as the essence of His word, and teach the same thing in all the churches in every country throughout the earth! Thank You Lord for being with us both personally in our spirit and corporately whenever we meet in Your name. We want to keep the oneness of the Spirit, the oneness of the Body of Christ, by teaching nothing else but God’s economy, which is in faith!
The Genuine Oneness is an All-inclusive, Comprehensive Oneness that Includes All Positive Things
We have seen that division is not something simple but rather it is all-inclusive, including all the negative things and leading to death. The genuine oneness is an all-inclusive, comprehensive oneness that includes all positive things (see Psa. 23:6; 36:8-9; 43:3-4; 84:1-8, 10-12; 92:10; 133:1, 3b).
The genuine oneness includes God, Christ, and the Spirit; it includes God the Father, Christ the Lord, and the Spirit as the Giver of life (see Eph. 4:3-6).
Oneness includes our regenerated spirit and our transformed and renewed mind.
Everything positive is included in the genuine oneness, the proper oneness, because this oneness is not something of ourselves but rather, it is the enlarged oneness of the Triune God.
Our practice of oneness is based upon the one attribute of the oneness of the church – one Lord, one God, one Body, one faith, one baptism, and one hope (Eph. 4:4-6).
Our practice of the genuine oneness is according to the apostles teaching; the apostles taught the same thing to all the saints in all the places and in all the churches, and this was for the oneness of the Body.
Our practice of the genuine oneness is according to the same speaking of the Spirit to the churches (Rev. 2:7, 11a, 17a, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).
The Spirit speaks to all the churches, His speaking is not merely for one church but for all of them, and in the speaking of the Spirit we are made one.
On one hand every local church is a golden lampstand – distinct and self-contained; on the other hand, all local churches are identical in nature, shape, function, and expression, and they cannot be separate from other local churches.
We all can be one and we can have the genuine oneness because oneness is God Himself, and the oneness we keep is the enlarged oneness of the Triune God.
The main attribute of God is oneness; God is one, His work is one, His essence is one, His Christ is one, His Spirit is one, His creation is one, and His New Jerusalem is one.
He created one corporate man; He called one corporate man; He regenerated one new man; He has one church; He is gaining one new man; He will obtain one New Jerusalem.
In the New Jerusalem we have one unique Triune God, one throne, one street, one river, and one tree.
The oneness that we have today is not a partial oneness but a great, complete, comprehensive oneness!
When we see the vision of the oneness if entirety, all the germs of division will be killed, and we will be delivered from every kind of division.
The Lord Jesus prayed for this oneness to be present and practiced among His believers (John 17:21-23); this oneness is not merely that individual believers come together in harmony and agreement, but that the divine oneness would be enlarged and include all the believers in Christ.
He has given us His word, His life, His nature, and His glory so that we may be one, even as the Father and the Son are one.
The three of the Triune God are one in Their nature and being; our oneness today should be essentially the same.
The Lord Jesus has given us the glory that the Father has given Him so that we may be one in the Father and in the Son; this points to a oneness in the divine nature and the Divine Being.
The genuine oneness is actually the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with the believers.
When the oneness is recovered, all the spiritual riches and all the positive things are recovered with it, because they all exist in the oneness.
When we are on the genuine ground of oneness and we practice the genuine oneness, all the godly things and all the spiritual riches are ours (Deut. 8:7-9; 12:12, 26-28).
Our genuine oneness is not a “partial oneness” but rather, it is a great, complete, comprehensive oneness, a oneness in entirety.
Psa. 133 shows us how the genuine oneness among God’s people includes all positive attributes and virtues.
Oh, may we see the vision of the oneness of entirety so that all the germs of division in our being would be killed, and we would be delivered from every kind of division!
Lord Jesus, we praise You for giving us Your life, Your word, and Your glory so that we may be one, even as the Father and the Son are one! Hallelujah, we have the genuine oneness, which is an all-inclusive, comprehensive oneness including all the positive things! May this oneness be practiced among us and may we enjoy all the spiritual riches and all the positive things! Amen, Lord Jesus, we remain on the genuine ground of oneness to enjoy all the godly things and all the spiritual riches that are in the genuine oneness! Oh Lord, may all the believers in Christ see the vision of the oneness of entirety so that all the germs of division will be killed and we all would be delivered from every kind of division!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “The Genuine Ground of Oneness,” pp. 243, 292-293, 330, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Deuteronomy, week 10, Avoiding Division, Which Is versus the Oneness That We Keep, and Rejecting Apostasy, Which Is versus the Faith That We Contend For.
- 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)
– Learn the lesson from church hist’ry / Of the failures we must avoid; / Degradation we fight against, / Recov’ring from divisive ground / To the oneness of the Body; / Returning to what God’s revealed. / Lord build in us, Lord build in us / The Kingdom life. The Kingdom life. (Song on, The Church of God—we are the church)
– Thus we must relinquish doctrines of all kinds, / Only keep the faith that oneness we may find. / In the Lord the Spirit we are one indeed; / Just to keep this oneness is our only need. (Hymns #832)
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