Unacknowledged Sons: the Struggle for Mature Unity
Immediate Context
The immediate context to this note is a meeting held in Perth (24/8/13) as a follow up to Ian Shelton’s visit last June, seeking greater functional unity between pastors/local churches, marketplace ministries, and prayer networks. The discussion was open, healthy and peaceful, but I was left with a sense of grief in the Father’s heart concerning the great spiritual confusion in our city. This article seeks to enhance discernment as to where the Spirit of God is working to release Christian unity in Australia today.
Seeing a Broader Context
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Psalm 133:1 ESV) is a favourite passage on unity, but must be read in the light of its fulfilment in Christ. A fulfilment highlighted in Hebrews; “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”” (2:10-12).
Similarly, the key to understanding Jesus prayer for Christian unity in John 17:21-22 is found in the explanation subsequently offered, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one” (v.23). The glory of Jesus is to be recognised as “Son” by the Father and to be able to bring many sons into this same glory (cf. Heb 2:10). These passages point to F/fatherhood and S/sonship as the only foundation for mature unity.
It follows that all attempts to ground unity in other realities are fundamentally mistaken and will fail. This applies to seeking oneness through gifts e.g. the New Apostolic Reformation, visible success e.g. church size, spirituality e.g. fellowship with Catholic Charismatics, pragmatism e.g. what works, or influence e.g. an effective network etc. All such emphases exclude other Christians because they do not correspond to the fullness of the love of the Father and Son.
Acknowledging All the Sons of God
If the unity of Jesus and the Father is grounded in the Son’s loving submission to the will of God in the power of the Spirit, Christian unity must be constituted by mutual submission to the reality of the Word/Son of God we discern in the lives of others (Eph 5:21; Col 3:16). All dimensions of the people of God, Catholic, Orthodox, traditional Protestant, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Evangelical, emerging church, need to submit to one another in love. This is deeply humbling; “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Phil 2:3). Such a spirit is rare, but it is at the heart of the Son’s submission to the Father which precedes his exaltation (Phil 2:5-11). When selfish ambition and “ownership” die God will definitely release his Spirit (James 3:13-18).
True spiritual fathers and mothers (1 Cor 4:15) will always be at the centre of mature Christian unity because they share the equal love that the Father has for all his children (cf. Luke 15:11-32). Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”” (John 13:20).
Discerning the True Fathers
The glory which the Father gave the crucified and exalted Son was the power to pour out the Spirit of God to make sons and daughters in his own likeness (Acts 2:33; Rom 8:16; Gal 4:6). “Nameless and faceless” people will lead a mature spiritual renewal in Australia, and these people are readily discerned by what they do and do not reproduce. Immature Church leaders constantly produce replicas of themselves, adherents to their style of vision and “spiritual DNA”. Such clones following Christ with following other men and women, and fail to be grasped by the fullness of their inheritance in God (Col 2:9-10). True spiritual fathers and mothers give others space to their sons and daughters to find out for themselves who they are in Christ. Maturity involves an unmistakable emphasis on our sharing together in the Father and Son’s love for one another.
Repentance
The present grief in the heart of the Father concerns the failure of the sons of God to mutually acknowledge one another as equal members of the one family (Eph 4:6). When this dysfunction in the family of God is dealt with by open confession, repentance and mutual action the unity for which Jesus prayed, and which is already a gift to the whole Church, will be unmistakeably manifested for the salvation of the world (John 17:21, 23). “The greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:13).