Unity? This spurious unity is sinful and deadly

In the aftermath of November’s General Synod, there has been a lot of talk about unity, whether the lack of it or the form of it.

When asked about division in the House of Bishops, Sarah Mullally, the Bishop of London, has been quoted as saying: ‘What we’re trying to model is how do you, despite the fact we may have different views, seek to try to find a place we can occupy together.’ Justin Welby, reflected: ‘Archbishops of Canterbury must always work for the maximum possible unity in the Church, however impossible that may seem and however deep our differences.’

‘Is Christ divided?’ asks Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:13, and the bishops might well repeat this question. But then they might struggle with Paul’s appeal in v.10, ‘that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you.’ Such carefully worded soundbites about clashing convictions occupying the same space seem more akin to Isaiah Berlin’s value pluralism than Christian unity.

That said, in secular society, it looks like value pluralism has had its day and been challenged by critical theories. Value pluralism calls us to accept a system of values despite our opposite system of values, because of our shared humanity. Critical theories expose how social structures systemically disempower and afflict particular groups and call us to disrupt them. I think there is some of that going on too, especially from the revisionist side, and thus we also have two social theories at war, neither of which has a Christian foundation. But there are Christian principles visibly at stake too – love and truth, compassion and holiness, welcoming all people and honouring God.

Unity is being expressed as the valuing of all views, including intentionally disruptive stances, which has all the stability of a naked flame in a gasworks. And, if you can excuse the tortuous pun, gaslighting has been a prevalent tactic in this project– the doctrine of the church has not changed, and yet the House of Bishops have commended what is contrary to Scripture.

We would happily own that unity is a salvation issue. It is through unity with Christ that we die to sin and are raised to life (Rom. 6:5). Our unity in Christ for our salvation is shared with all believers; we are one in Him. Unity is thus foundational to the church. ‘Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace’, says Paul in Ephesians 4:3, and continues with hymnic lyricism, ‘one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all’. Unity is essential it seems, but the question is not whether unity, but what kind.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul uses the word ‘koinonia’ to describe this essential union with Christ in 3:10. Yet he has already used the same word to describe the intimacy of Christian fellowship in 2:1, and the joy of wider gospel partnership in 1:5. The same word is used to describe Christian generosity and mission giving in Romans 15:26, 2 Corinthians 8:4 and 1 Timothy 6:18. Our union with Christ is expressed in these good forms of unity.

Unity is not a panacea for God-honouring church life, however. There are sinful, deadly forms of unity which the apostle warns against. Unity with sexual immorality is compared to uniting members of Christ with a prostitute in 1 Corinthians 6:15-16. While the relationship between Christ and the church is reflected in marriage between a man and a woman, a common Biblical image for apostasy is adultery. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul wrote that ‘you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler’.

In the local church, the right response is loving church discipline, following Jesus’s pattern in Matthew 18:15-17. Stubborn, wilful unrepentance results in being expelled from fellowship, but always with the aim of bringing repentance and restoration.

In the wider church it is more perplexing, and we need to address a failure of spiritual oversight. In Revelation 2:20, Jesus judges the church of Thyatira for tolerating Jezebel, whose teaching had led His servants into sexual immorality. He urges those who do not hold to her teaching to hold on to what they have until He comes (v.25). We must faithfully hold on to our distinctive unity in Christ and find ways to express it.

Having noted Paul’s warnings about division, we also see that separation is not always a sin and that there are good forms of separation in the Bible. Yet, even in good separation, faithful members of the body of Christ must express good unity with each other. That is the challenge that evangelicals in the Church of England must now embrace. The one good fruit of this crisis is the extraordinary dispensation of unity amongst evangelicals. It’s a significant endowment of Spirit-infused relational capital – koinonia – that we should inhabit and mobilise.

George Crowder is Vicar of St John’s, Over, a Regional Director for Church Society, a member of the CEEC Council and author of the forthcoming book: Reforming Church: How God is at Work in Church Revitalisation.

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