Wednesday: The Holy Spirit Unites the Church in Faith and Doctrine
“One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph. 4:5-6). What is Paul telling us here about unity and where it comes from?
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Unity in faith and doctrine is accomplished only in faithfulness to the Word of God. The Lord, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, forms a spiritual bond with every believer. The same new birth, generated by the Holy Spirit, the same obedience to the Word of God, enabled by the Holy Spirit, leads to a unity of faith and practice that transcends all human and cultural differences.
While we are called to submit to the Word of God and to do everything we can to maintain peace with everyone (Rom. 12:18), we ultimately cannot bring about theological unity or unity of purpose as a church body. For unity is not so much a work to be achieved but a gift of the Holy Spirit, who works on each believer individually and on the church corporately.
The theological foundation of this unity is the Word of God. Any appeal to the Spirit without the Written Word can lead to suspect doctrines and practices. At the same time, any appeal to the Written Word of God without the Holy Spirit dries up the Word and makes it barren. Because there is only one Lord, there is only one faith that leads to one baptism. Only in joyful faithfulness to the Word of God will we be able to see unity within our church. And if there is no unity in faith and doctrine, there will be no unity in mission.
“We have one Lord, one faith, one baptism. The gospel of Christ is to reach all classes, all nations, all tongues and people. The influence of the gospel is to unite in one great brotherhood. We have only one Model that we are to imitate in character building, and then we all shall have Christ’s mold; we shall be in perfect harmony; nationalities will blend in Jesus Christ, having the same mind, and the same judgment, speaking the same things, and with one mouth glorifying God.” – Ellen G. White, Our High Calling, p. 171.
| Look at the Ellen G. White statement above. Not worrying about others and what others do, but only yourself, ask: What can I do to help reach this wonderful goal of unity? |
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Unity is accomplished when we all unite with God by the work of the Holy Spirit in the brain of each soul. This is the way God unites us and is able to take the reins to direct the world-wide work. Church organization can only be accomplished rightly when the Holy Spirit is allowed by each soul to be the driver of the will.
Well said. No mystery. We can all work in one purppose if we allow the Holy Spirit to be the chief of our will. How to do that? Communion with Jesus. Through His love we can be healed and converted to His voice.
Unity, what is the glue that brings it about? Theologically, we know that Jesus Christ through the word is the ultimate accomplishing factor of true unity. But our sinful nature cowers in the presence of heavenly sinlessness. The only factor missing in the equation is our knowing our true state of weakness.
The only time Jacob understood victory, is when self was overcome by Michael. Have you ever wondered why we will need to go through the little time of Jacob's trouble? The only way to victory is to acknowledge our filthy rag condition, coupled with our grabbing what has been promised us, not letting go until he blesses us. When people are united in real felt trouble, they are quickly united. We are all better to stay the course at a steady pace sensing our need and victory offered us.
We'll achieve little as a church if we fail to embrace the unity which is a product of the Holy spirit.The Lord has given the church as an agency to salvation of humanity. The big question is,if the Bible teaches that there's one God, one spirit,faith and baptism, then why why all these doctrinal, theological,denominational and religional differences?
It's a good question Simeon, and one that I have wrestled with from time to time. If perhaps I could focus on unity in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and then perhaps apply the principles to the wider Christian Church, we may just make a bit of sense out of the situation.
In our own imagination, we like to think of the Seventh-day Adventist church as a united body, but we know that even within the church we have a wide variety of thoughts and ideas about how our beliefs should be interpreted. We have both conservative and liberal Adventists and, I guess that there are a fair number who like to classify themselves as "middle of the road". We do not see eye-to-eye on lots of issues. In fact one SDA academic said in my hearing recently, that it is difficult to define a "typical Seventh-day Adventist any more.
Here is an example: In one of the arctic countries Adventists differed with one another about when Sabbath should begin and end. They have the situation where for several weeks each year the sun is above the horizon and there is no night, and in winter the opposite occurs; there are several weeks of night. Two ideas developed about how to work out when Sabbath began and ended. I am not going to detail them here because that is not the point of the story. The argument between the two sides escalated until it became a Conference issue, then a Union issue, a Division issue, and finally a General Conference issue,all without resolution. They had a big seminar to resolve the issue and about 500 pages of papers were produced by leading theologians supporting one side or the other. (I know, because I have the originals sitting as a big pile in my cupboard at home - lent to me by one of the theologians involved.) Finally someone made the proposal that it did not really matter which method was used to calculate the beginning of the Sabbath, provided (1) that once you had chosen one method, you did not swap to the other method for the sake of convenience, and (2) you respected those who had chosen the alternative method and did not make them feel guilty because their method was different to yours. In other words, it is possible to disagree, and get on with one another.
Ultimately, in the world wide church, we are going to have differences. We need to understand that Jesus gave us two great laws to think about: Love God, and love one another. If our love for God, helps us to treat one another with respect, even when we differ then I think we are on the right track. Unfortunately, we frequently get very parochial about our beliefs and start using words like "heresy" and "work of the papacy" when talking about church members we disagree with. That is not a basis for unity.
Jesus said, by that shall all men know you are my disciples if you love one another. He did not say that you are my disciples because you win a doctrinal argument.
We will become united, not when we all agree doctrinally, but when we agree to respect and help one another in Jesus name. We must remember that the Gospel is a learning and sharing experience, not a method of controlling membership.
I like what you state that Jesus said, by that shall all men know you are my disciples if you love one another. He did not say that you are my disciples because you win a doctrinal argument.
2 Tim 2:23-25 (NIV version) says "Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels...Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentence leading to a knowledge of truth.
The Word Of God and the Holy Spirit will impress them on the truth and this is not achieve with arguments but through real repentence leading to a knowledge of truth. The Holy Spirit gently instructs.
Amen. Amen bro M. Ashton.
The love of God enables us to treat each other with respect and to appreciate them. AMEN AMEN
Is God a God of diversity when it comes to doctrines?
God unites us in love in spite of our differences in doctrine. We need to think how we can implement that!
We should have a common understanding of fundamental doctrines. We need not agree on minor points and should allow each to be persuaded in his own mind. No one should make his opinion on a minor point a rule for all to follow.
Wish we could come to more charitable solution on some other issues. Instead we try to force majority opinion on all.
I believe the purpose of the Word - Jesus and the Bible - and the work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the true character of the 3-in-1 God and to invite us into a Everlasting loving relationship with Him.
I believe the reason we have so many different Christian denominations is that they are still in the process of growing in understanding the character of God. So long as each denomination is open to growing we will all come to a unity of the knowledge of God.
Just as the holyspirit inspired the bible writers,it also inspires the bible readers and too inspired General Conference in writing the 28 SDA Fundamental beliefs therefore the folowers and teachers should ask for the holyspirit for inspiration.
I found the Hope Channel about 3 weeks ago. I feel that the Holy Spirit led me to you. I have been watching since then and am enjoying it very much. I lost my youngest daughter in August 2016. She was diagnosed with a rare disease called Good Pastures Syndrome in 2011. It killed her kidneys right off the bat. She was in the hospital for 2 1/2 months. She had to go on dialysis 3 days a week. She was so tired and decided she didn't want to do it anymore. She lived about ten days after that. Please pray for my family and me. Your programs today are about dying and Heaven and paintings. I am enjoying these programs so much
Thanks so much for your prayers.
How I wish the adventist light shines to the whole world,Jesus shall come back soon!!!!!!!
Katigho, the light of the gospel of God's Love shines through us wherever we are allowing His Spirit to drive our thoughts and feelings with the True Love of God. It's up to us to spread the gospel of God's Love at all times and to all we influence.
What is the Adventist light. We need the light of Christ. To often we point folk to Adventist, then they are disappointed. let us focus on the light of Christ as he never fails us
Amen brother, how I wish we meet each other there!!
“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as the Lord and not to men.” (Colossians 3:23)
Dear Brothers & Sisters,
Greeting in the Precious name of Jesus Christ. We are running a ministry “Elevation to Heaven ministries” in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Our moto line is “Development for Dignity and honor for Christians”. As everybody knows that Pakistan is poor country and we the Christians are minority in Pakistan which is the only two percent of the total population of Pakistan and the Christians in Pakistan are living in below the poverty line.
So we are highly focusing on our Christian community specially to the children of our community as they are the future of our community in Pakistan, because many children are doing labor in many hotels, parks, shops etc. As their parents cannot pay their school fee so they are in necessity to do the work, so we are doing the efforts for children in different ways as well as we are serving our whole community, we are running the different projects which are given below.
1. To Pay their school fee so that they can get education.
2. To teach them the word of God we are serving them Sunday school in different places.
3. Church Planting.
4. To prevent them to do the child Labor.
5. Food Distribution & Flood Relief.
6. Medical Camps & Clean Water Plantation.
7. Christian Literature distribution.
8. Free Beautician courses for Youth Girls.
9. Free Stitching Classes for Women.
10. Legal Advocacy.
“So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” (II-Corinthians 9:7)
Dear brother and sisters we are in highly need of you we need your prayer and moral support:
How you can help us:
1. Remember us in your prayers.
2. You can send us your love in shape of money to meet the need of our projects so we can serve best.
3. Christian Literature.
4. Stationary and gifts for Sunday school children.
5. And more important with your respectable and valuable suggestions.
We are highly thankful for giving us time.
Your Brother in Christ.
Evangelist Jalal Masih
Chairman & founder of
Eh ministries.
Faisalabad-Pakistan
Visit Us: http://ehministries.org/