Throughout my life, I have been able to live in various locations throughout the United States. Most of my life has been lived in midwestern states (Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin & Ohio), but I have also had experiences of living in Texas, Virginia, and New Mexico. One thing that always amazed me was how the various dialects in the different states affected the pronunciation or slang phrases that were used. Whenever I first moved to an area, it took some time to figure out how some words were expected to be pronounced or what word I was supposed to use: what do you call carbonated beverages (pop, soda, coke???) or a winter hat (stocking cap, toboggan, beanie?). Even simply moving within the Midwest posed some challenges with the dialect as Rachael needed to explain what a bubbler was to me. It amazed me that while we in the United States are united in our language, the English language isn’t uniform across regions.
While the words are very similar between unity and uniformity, the definitions are quite different. Unity is the state of being united or joined as a whole while uniformity is the state of being the same in all cases and at all times. As Christians, how does God desire us to live?
God did not create humans to fight but rather to love. In Genesis we learn that God designed us (people) in His image (Genesis 1:26), meaning that we were designed to be relational and loving. People having a need for relationships, due to God’s design, is further reinforced in Genesis 2 when God states that it is not good for man to be alone, resulting in His creation of Eve from Adam. God’s perfect design was to have man and woman existing together and living in fellowship.
The beauty of the Bible and God’s plan is that He did not leave us on our own to figure out what living in fellowship with each other means. He gives us instructions in His Word to guide us. The Bible states that we are to love God and to love our neighbors (Matthew 22:36 – 40). God also helps guide us in our relationships by teaching us about unity. Philippians 2:1-12 teaches us about Biblical unity. God calls Christians to be unified in Christ, meaning to be of one mind, spirit, mission, and goal. As Christians, we are to understand that unity in Christ means we all believe:
We are sinners who need a savior.
Christ is God’s Son who was sent to save us from sin through His sacrifice.
We are to share the Gospel of Christ with the world so that people who are lost may find salvation through Christ.
Though society would love us to believe so, unity is not uniformity. How we go about worshipping God, living our Christian lives, and sharing the Gospel is not explicitly prescribed. In the Bible we see instances where people can be Christians (living in unity) but following different paths. Paul gives examples that it is acceptable to not live uniformly in 1 Corinthians. He states that with Christ it is acceptable to be circumcised or to not be circumcised. He states that it is acceptable to live a Christian life unmarried and it is acceptable to live a Christian life married. Just like today, differences in uniformity were causing divisiveness in the society and the church, and God (through Paul) demonstrated that uniformity is not the expectation. As we reflect on our own lives and relationships, if there are areas where we are not living in unity we should address those, but we should be mindful that unity is not uniformity. We were created in God’s image but that image is unique for each of us.
Desmond