Live in harmony with one another (Rom 12.16)

In John 17, just hours before His arrest, Jesus prayed three times in three consecutive verses that Christians would be one: "that all of them may be one, Father" (v. 21); "that they may be one as we are one" (v. 22); "may they be brought to complete unity" (v. 23). Even if the Bible said nothing else about this subject, the fact that this is what fills the Lord's mind at the most critical moment in history would be enough to impress on us how important the unity of the church is. And yet how often do we pray for it — in our personal prayers, in family worship, in our prayer meetings?

This emphasis runs right through the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 1:10, Paul appeals to the church to be "perfectly united in mind and thought." In Philippians 2:2, he urges believers to be "like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose." And negatively, the Bible is full of solemn warnings against disrupting the harmony of the church. The devil loves to spread disunity wherever he sees a church that is harmonious and united. A fragmented, bickering church is no threat to him — it simply confirms outsiders in their opinion that the church is full of unloving hypocrites.

The church at Rome badly needed this command. It was made up of very diverse people. The city of Rome was the capital of the world — an incredibly cosmopolitan place. The church had initially been composed mostly of Jewish Christians who shared the same background and standards. But over time, it filled up with Gentiles from all kinds of backgrounds. Some were God-fearers who respected Jewish traditions, but others came from very pagan, immoral lifestyles and had no interest in circumcision, special days, or dietary laws. The Jewish Christians could not help believing what they had been taught from their earliest days — that the pig was an unclean animal and the thought of eating pork turned their stomachs. Meanwhile, the Gentile converts really looked forward to their pork chop after church on the Lord's Day. It is hard to imagine, humanly speaking, two more different and incompatible groups of people. And yet in Christ, all these human barriers are destroyed, and Paul says to them: live together in harmony.

The Nature of Unity

What does it mean for a church to be united? First, we must understand what unity is not. Unity is not uniformity. Uniformity is what the cults demand — where every single person must believe exactly the same thing on every issue and behave in exactly the same way, carbon copies of one another. That is not how God designed the church. Think of the first creation: it is bursting with variety and diversity. Millions upon millions of different species of animals, fish, birds, reptiles, and insects — so many that most of them have not even been discovered yet. Thousands upon thousands of shades of colour — just go into B&Q and look at all the colour chips. No two snowflakes are the same. No two fingerprints are identical — which is why you cannot open someone else's phone with your fingerprint, although it does not explain why I sometimes cannot open my own phone with mine.

If God's first creation is that rich and varied, how can His new creation — the church — be any less diverse? Even just in this room, one tiny congregation out of millions worldwide, there are different personalities, gifts, abilities, interests, lifestyles, senses of humour, and life experiences. And yet it does not make a jumbled, tangled mass. Rather, it enhances the beauty of the church. Imagine a town where every building was built to the same design, using exactly the same materials and the same colour scheme. One kind of flower, one shade of green, one kind of car. You would not look at that and think, "What a harmonious town." You would say, "What a dull, boring, horrible place." That was one of the hallmarks of communism — diversity suppressed to produce a grey, bland, boring sadness.

Or think of music. A hundred voices singing the same note together is not harmony. Harmony is the blending of different notes and pitches which produces a far more beautiful and interesting sound — and yet there is still perfect unity. Diversity in the church is not a threat to unity. It is a blessing. In fact, the passages in the Bible that speak most strongly about the unity of the church are the same passages that describe its rich diversity — like 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul pictures one body with many different parts, all looking different, all doing different things, but all working together in perfect harmony. Those who are more cautious act as a check on those who are more impetuous. Older people bring reserves of wisdom that need to be joined to the idealism and energy of younger people. The serious-minded need to be tempered by the light-hearted, and the light-hearted need the serious-minded to prevent them becoming flippant. It would be a terrible thing if everybody in the church were like me — or you.

The Basis of Unity

The unity of the church is one of its defining attributes. The early Christian creeds describe the church with four adjectives: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. The church is one. And the reason it is one is because of the basis of its unity — not a common desire to keep traditions, not a mutual interest in religion or morality, but something supernatural. Every single Christian has been united to Jesus Christ by faith. Christians are described in the Bible as people who are "in Christ." Because we are joined to Him, we are joined to one another. Believing Methodists in Malaysia, Baptists in Brazil, Charismatics in Canada, and Presbyterians in Peru are all united — not because of their denomination but because of their union with Christ.

But this does not mean we can simply say, "We are united in Christ, so it does not matter if we look united or not." Imagine Mr and Mrs Jones and their three sons, Tom, Dick, and Harry. They are one family — marriage and biology have united them. But in the course of time, the parents quarrel, separate, and divorce. The three boys fall out with their parents and with one another. Tom emigrates to Canada, Dick to South Africa, Harry to Australia. They never meet, never write, never telephone. They even change their names by deed poll. Would you say it does not matter because they are still technically one family? Of course not. They ought to live as one family. They ought to behave as one family. They should be seen to be one family. And that is exactly what Jesus was praying for in John 17 — that the world would see that Christians are one.

Nurturing Harmony

The New Testament frequently commands us to be what we are. We are holy — so be holy. We are light — so live as children of light. It is like telling someone, "Be a man" — you are not telling them to become a man; you are saying, "You are a man, so act like one." Paul is saying here: you are one, so live as one united people. And in Romans 12:9–16, he gives us the attitudes and behaviours that nurture harmony.

Sincere love (vv. 9–10): "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love." We do not want hollow love that is all talk and no action, or love that only cares about people when it suits us. We want love that is warm, fervent, and unconditional — because we are all members of one family.

Honouring one another (v. 10): "Honour one another above yourselves." If there is one thing that kills harmony, it is seeking your own honour. Talk about the virtues of other people far more than you talk about your own. Instead of trying to get the limelight onto yourself, make it your mission to honour everybody else ahead of yourself.

Zealous service (v. 11): "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord." One of the things that destroys harmony is when some are zealous and committed while others are very lukewarm. A slave does not stop and ask, "What do I want to do with my time?" A slave does what his master expects. And we are servants of the Lord.

Hospitality (v. 13): "Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality." The word Paul uses here literally means pursue hospitality — do not wait for it to come to you; go and look for it.

Sharing joys and sorrows (v. 15): "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." We are probably quite good at mourning with those who mourn. But rejoicing with those who rejoice? That can be harder — especially when we think we ought to be succeeding instead of them. As one old writer put it, "This requires more of a high Christian temper. It requires a very noble soul, so as not only to keep from envying, but even to feel pleasure with the person who is in esteem."

Humility (v. 16): "Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited." One way you know you are not being proud is that there is no one you will not speak to. We must not have a list in our minds of the untouchables — the people we steer clear of because they are strange, or lower than us in the world's pecking order, or do not have the right accent, or do not dress the right way.

It has been a real joy, even in just over a year as pastor here, to see so many of these things happening in Covenant Fellowship — a congregation that is more diverse than many in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, because Galway is a more diverse place than much of Ireland. We share our lives with people that under normal circumstances we might have nothing to do with, and yet here in the church we call each other brother and sister and would do anything for one another. But let us not take it for granted. Let us pray for unity just as the Lord prayed for it. And if there is someone in the church you are not in harmony with, the Lord wants you to sort that out. Go the extra mile. Do whatever you have to do to live in harmony with that brother or sister for whom Christ died. The devil loves to see a church that is splintered and fractured. Jesus prayed that we would be one. Let us do all that we can, by the grace of God, to guard and preserve and nurture the harmony of the church.

This sermon is part of the One Another Commands series at Covenant Christian Fellowship, Galway. See also: Consider One Another Better Than Yourselves (Philippians 2:3) and Spur One Another On (Hebrews 10:24).