Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

Six of these aspects seem clear enough, but what is meant by „one faith‟? One commentator
says it means „justifying faith‟, but it seems to me that the term „one faith‟ cannot be limited
to one aspect of faith. Rather, I believe that it embraces all that it means to be committed to
God in Christ: the phrase is a description of the tie that binds all Christians together, that
distinctive „smell‟ of Christianity that C S Lewis refers to and which we mentioned in the
Preface. It is that vision of a redeeming God which all his children have, however limited the
vision of it is (1 Corinthians 13.12).
Paul says this unity is only achieved by hard effort, to manifest what God has already given
us in Christ. It is a unity made and inspired by the Spirit of God (Ephesians 4.3), but
Christians must make every effort to guard it in the binding power of the Spirit of God. In
other words, we must not let the bonds of peace be loosened.
How is this to be done in practical terms? Not by never disagreeing with our fellow
Christians, but by having peace, goodwill, benevolence in all our dealings with one another.
It will probably involve our saying sorry (and meaning it), and letting our feelings or
inclinations be ignored or even hurt, though it will not mean setting aside our consciences.
The really difficult thing in working out principles of unity between believers is to know
when to say „no‟ to self and one‟s own hopes and ideas in the interest of the common good,
and when one‟s own views ought to prevail. I think most of the squabbles in churches and
fellowships have to do with having personal feelings hurt rather than matters of principle
being the real issue.
Paul sees unity among believers as a sign of maturity, and his vision is that this maturity
should be entered into by all Christians as they come to know Christ better and better. We
cannot say we know Christ and are „attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ‟
(Ephesians 4.13) if we are not at one with our fellow Christians.
d) Acts 15. The Council of Jerusalem
There was conflict in the early days of the Church over the place in the church for the Jewish
Torah. Did Gentiles have to submit to these laws and rituals as well as their fellow Jewish
Christians? It was a crucial issue.
Lois Malcolm, in a footnote to her essay in The Ecumenical Future 205 points out that this
passage in the Acts telling the story of the debate of the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15.1-35)
lies at the very heart of Luke‟s account of the Christian faith. It is exactly half way through
his book. It marks the turning point in the early history of the Church. At first most Christians
were Jews brought up to observe the law of Moses, but soon many Gentiles, particularly in
Antioch in Syria, were brought into the Church. They had no background of Jewish lawkeeping.
Were these believers now under obligation to keep of all Torah requirements and,
more importantly, were they really a part of Israel or still outsiders as Gentiles had always
been considered?
205 Ed Braaten, Carl E and Jenson, Robert W, The Ecumenical Future, William B Eerdmans
Publishing Co, 2004, p 222.
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