ONENESS
Two hundred fifty years ago was the birth of our nation. It was July 2, 1776, that the Resolution for Independence was approved by the colonies in a unanimous vote, and July 4, 1776 – 250 years ago yesterday – that the Declaration of Independence was approved in another unanimous vote.
The unity expressed in the voting for independence was a miracle. Delaware only voted in favor because Caesar Rodney rode 70 miles through the night in a thunderstorm to be there in time. New York was against it for most of the deliberations. Pennsylvania – Ben Franklin’s colony – only voted in favor because two of its seven delegates abstained.
And yet at the end of the Declaration the colonies called themselves states that “are … United.” That same year, 1776, a notable citizen suggested that the phrase “E pluribus unum” – “out of many, one” – be included on the national seal, as it was in 1782; and it became our nation’s motto. Although today you hear people call us a divided people, it’s still true that in spite of everything we are one nation, even indivisible. We don’t always feel united or see it tangibly, so this is an article of faith, that we are one.
Yet, in a much greater way, with greater things at stake, God declares that while we belong to Him individually, we as His Church are one. This is an article of faith: “I believe in the one holy, Christian and apostolic Church.” The challenge is to live out this oneness, as we now hear the epistle again:
The Text, 1 Peter 3:8-15. Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word
is truth. Through the preaching of Your Word, create and strengthen in us not only faith in You, O God, but also fervent love that refuses to be divided. Amen.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Finally, all of you be of one mind.” Simon Peter wrote these words. The same Peter who – with Andrew, James, and John – “brought their boats to land, forsook all, and followed Jesus.”
Did the disciples have “oneness” of mind? Peter and Andrew were blood brothers. So were James and John. But what about when James and John asked to be in superior positions in the kingdom of heaven and the other 10 resented them for it? Or the times the twelve bickered about who will be first among Jesus’ disciples? Jesus was there to correct and restore their oneness.
In the early church, did they have disagreements? Yes. Paul rebuked Peter to his face for compelling Gentiles to submit to Jewish religious ceremonies; yet their own unity was restored. In the epistles, Paul and James correct errors and rebuke what the church is doing in its life together, yet they address them as “my brothers” and “saints” and as “the church of God.”
Peter is teaching in these verses about our conduct as individual Christians living in the world, and yet wants us to not get so narrowly focused in our own individual stuff that we pull apart from each other, act as “lone ranger Christians,” and forget that we are the Church, that we are to be one in faith and – here’s the part we forget – one in love. To work at remaining one.
We might think it’s hard for us in the church to “all be of one mind.” How is it possible when everyone has their own mind? We see how this is an issue in our nation. But in the church too, especially due to the emphasis on a “personal relationship” with God, Americans are notorious for reducing Christianity to a “me an’ Jesus” faith. Many object to closed communion and the requirement to have a unity or oneness in faith before communing together, by objecting that the faith is just between each person and Jesus.
But that is not the discipleship Jesus instituted. Jesus wasn’t just calling individuals. If you read the apostles’ writings – the “epistles” – you hear all the time that they are many but they are one. St. Paul says in connection with the Lord’s Supper: “We, though many, are one bread and one body” (1Co 10:17). We say the same thing. Every Sunday we say, “I believe in … the communion of saints.”The word “communion” means that we are many, but we are one. Every Sunday we say we believe we aren’t just individuals. Don’t we sing that the church is “from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth?” (ELH 486:2)
Why is this oneness important? First, our relationship to God. We are to be one, like the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. Secondly, because nothing else is so good for our life together. Who wants to stay in a divided church? But in a positive sense, it resonates with our modern-day loneliness epidemic, that to be a communion, where no one will abandon but only pull you in, is something the world is lacking. Third, it matters in how we look to the world. It will draw others to the church to see our oneness not only in faith but love.
So first, in our relationship to God, our oneness happens for Jesus’ sake by faith. Our sins separate us from God (Isa 59:2) and destroy this oneness, count us guilty and make it so God feels distant. St. Paul writes about how Jesus made peace with God for us through the blood of His cross (Col 1:20), that in Christ “God was reconciling the world to Himself” (2Cor 5:19), not counting trespasses against us. This peace with God which Jesus won, taking away all that stands between us and God, makes us one with Him. Peter, in this 1st epistle, pictures us as being “built up a spiritual house,”all part of one thing.
We see this oneness in the Lord’s Supper. One reason it’s called communion is that God is one and you are other from Him, yet by giving you the forgiveness of your sins, and cleansing you from all sin, as you eat Christ’s body given for you and drink His blood shed for you, He makes Himself one with you; He dwells in you. You come to the Lord’s Supper so you won’t be separated from God but united with Him, by His doing. He comes close to you, even into you. Oneness with Him is what the Lord’s Supper is about!
But as He makes Himself one with you – think of it as “vertical communion” – He also does so for the person communing next to you – this is a “horizontal communion.” He makes us one with each other.
This brings us to the second point about our oneness: it’s for our unity and life together as His Church. As the vertical communion is faith, the horizontal communion is love. This is what Peter is primarily addressing: our life with each other, the love for neighbor. It’s our life of sanctification. But from these verses, we want to think of it as: refusing to be divided from each other.
We think of it on the horizontal level, just dealing with each other, but it still has a vertical element: it’s living a godly life, our “doing good” is doing “the will of God,” doing it “for the Lord’s sake” (1Pe 2:13-15). Peter sets it up as the way we as Christians respond to the godless world, “those who do evil.” He says we should not be “returning evil for evil.” He quotes Psalm 34 and applies it to our life of sanctification to describe a Christian’s life: “Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.”
As we hear this, remember that when the Holy Spirit is using God’s Law to guide us in how we live, this is something only Christians can do. The world can’t do this; it would only be outward. Peter is addressing what we speak and what we do, but it begins internally. It begins with a right heart.
This isn’t only about our life out in the world. Satan tempts us right here in the church to be self-serving, to say I want what I want, to engage in idle talk about others, to hurt and be hurt, especially with words. To be a Christian who just comes to church to get what I need and that’s it, misses out on being the Church; it’s wrong if Christians are “takers” even spiritually, not givers. Peter also says even if you’ve been wronged, you’re not to lash out or blame, but use your words only to bless. “For you were called to this,” he says.
Remember that! The essence of being a Christian isn’t being proven right, but extending to others what Christ gives you – the kindness, love, patience, and passing over faults that comes from Him – that you give it to them: “love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be humble,” it says. This is spiritual warfare! It isn’t just as individuals; it’s the essence of being His Church: to stubbornly refuse to only be a me, and go to the end with everyone to preserve the “we.”
Peter says this is how you “sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart.” It’s an insistence that Christ will be Lord in your heart, to influence your life with others, inside the church and out in the world. Again, this is from the Gospel.
Finally, this shows the world who we are as the Church. But especially it shows whose we are. You belong to Christ. Peter says we should live this way so well, it should be obvious in how we live that we have the true “hope” – so others will “ask you a reason for the hope that is in you.”
We want people to see that while we have our own minds, we have this “oneness” given by Christ and lived out by His grace. Its source is what we hear together in Scripture and receive together in His Supper, where He strengthens us not only in faith but also in love. This makes you “ready to give a defense,” to say what you believe on the basis of the Scriptures.
Especially it brings you to cling to Christ, to refuse to be parted from Him, and to refuse to be parted from each other. This oneness that we have – while also having our personal identity in Christ – is worth fighting for. Amen!