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Truthfulness, Not Diversity, Establishes Unity in the Church

 

Life in community involves truthfulness.  Without it, there will be no unity in the Church.  Or we might say that any claim to unity will be a false unity.  In some churches and denominations today, a false unity is offered on the grounds that a more important virtue, diversity, defines both unity and truthfulness.  Three passages will be considered briefly on this matter: John 17, Ephesians 4, and Zechariah 8 (the latter text being quoted in Ephesians 4).

Throughout the latest Lambeth Conference (2022), the Archbishop of Canterbury pointed out the obvious, that there are two different groups in Anglicanism holding to two different, incompatible views on sexuality and marriage. He then went on, shockingly, to claim that both views are true for their own groups (a Postmodern, not Christian, claim).  He next claimed that this disagreement was a feature of  a higher form of unity based in diversity.  In an official attempt during the conference to express this view, the doctrine of the Trinity was invoked in a heretical way.  It was claimed that the doctrine of One God in three Persons demonstrated unity despite diversity, or even because of diversity.  This false understanding of the Trinity and careless use of an analogy failed to understand the full unity of the Persons of the Trinity, not their holding incompatible views and yet agreeing to work or walk together.  More might be said about the lurking heresies in such an argument, but, for the purpose of this reflection, truthfulness rather than different understandings of the truth is essential for Christian unity.

John 17 

Jesus' prayer to the Father in John 17 is a prayer about unity, the unity that He has with the Father, the unity that His disciples have with Him, and therefore the unity that the disciples have with the Father.  That unity is not a unity with the world--and we might note in passing that 'the world' refers not only to the idolatrous nations but also to the Jewish religious establishment from which Jesus and His disciples have separated.  What, though, is the nature of this unity of which Jesus speaks?  The answer is that it is a unity in the truth of the words that Jesus has received from the Father and given to the disciples.  Two verses might be quoted to make this point:

For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.... Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth (John 17.8, 17).

The unity that Jesus prays for is a unity in the truth, and the truth is in the 'words' that Jesus has spoken to the disciples--in the revelation from the Father through the Son.  This is precisely the opposite of a Postmodern notion that truth is decided by a group and that different groups can respectably hold to their own truth, and that the different groups with their different truths can have a higher sort of unity.  Postmoderns believe that conformity is a lower kind of unity, whereas the unity of groups holding to different versions of the truth is a higher unity--the unity of diversity.  Contrast this notion to what Jesus prays for in John 17: a unity in the truth over against the false teaching of Jewish religious leaders. These two notions of truth could not be further apart.

Zechariah 8.16-17 and Ephesians 4.15, 25

Consider next a passage in Zechariah 8.16-17 and Paul’s use of it in Ephesians 4.  Together, they help us see that God has a plan for his people to establish their peaceful community on truthful interaction with one another.  This involves truthful speech and true judgements.  It also involves correcting theological and ethical errors.  This vision of truthfulness is something that Zechariah prophesied would be established by God one day in the future, and Paul sees it as characteristic of the Church now.

In a passage that prophesies God’s future restoration and renewal of His people and the land, Zechariah also lays down a new way of life for the people of God:

These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the LORD (Zech. 8.16-17). 

In this passage, sources of strife that will be removed are lying and false judgements.  Watch a football match with referees who fail to be fair and see how quickly a peaceful rivalry can turn ugly.  God's promises of a renewed community, though, include the notion that it will be peaceful through its truthful living.

 Paul seems to have this passage in view when he writes an epistle of peace to churches in Ephesus and possibly the surrounding region.  His familiar words are,

… speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ (Eph. 4.15).

If Paul is thinking of Zechariah 8 when writing these words in Ephesians 4, he is then identifying the church with God’s restored remnant that is living in the restored and renewed community that is the Church.  In the Church, Zechariah’s prediction has become a reality.  They are no longer ‘sinful Israel,’ and they are no longer ‘Israel in exile because of their sins.’  They are, instead, God’s renewed people.  Thus, they are to live differently, and that difference is characterized by truthfulness.

Just what does Paul mean by the phrase ‘speaking the truth in love’ in Ephesians 4.15 and 4.25?  I’ve often heard people quote this as grounds for ‘straight talking,’ telling people the truth about themselves, their behaviour, their attitudes, and so forth.  Is Paul talking about reality therapy?  Not likely.  The passage in Zechariah has in mind being truthful as opposed to being dishonest.  It is a passage against cheating people in the marketplace, lying on the witness stand, and corruption in general.  Paul’s use of this passage is more specific: ‘speaking the truth’ is what people who are blown about by every wind of doctrine need from others in order to set a straight course in life once again.  The full passage reads as follows:

We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love (Eph. 4.14-16).

Thus, Paul does not have in view telling people the truth about themselves but telling people the Truth, setting people straight when they are led into error by false teaching, whether false doctrine or a false way of life.  In the context of this verse, false teaching is as much about what one believes as about how one lives; it is not just about theological error.  In fact, in this passage Paul probably has ethics more in view than doctrine.

Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity (Eph. 4.17-19).

Thus, the falsity that needs correction is the false life.  The most specific definition of this error involves licentiousness and impurity.

Just a few verses later, however, Paul returns to the full sense of Zechariah’s point when he says, more generally,

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another (Eph. 4.25).

Falsehood of any kind, including theological error, immorality, or lying itself, is rejected by the people of God who know the truth.  They are called on to speak this truth to one another as members of one another.  Therein lies the foundation for the unity of the people of God and for the peace that divided groups can find in Christ, who is our peace (Eph. 2.14).

From Zechariah and Ephesians, we learn that truthfulness has to do with:

·       being honest with one another in the sense of not lying, practicing corruption, rendering false judgements, and so forth (Zechariah);

·       correcting people blown off track by false teaching about what we believe and how we live (Ephesians);

·       living out God’s vision of a renewed, peaceful community here and now in the church (Zechariah and Ephesians).

As the renewed people of God, our community should be known as a community united in practicing truthfulness.


Related Essays on This Blog by Rollin Grams:

‘Christ’s Gifts for Unity in the Body of Christ (Ephesians); https://bibleandmission.blogspot.com/2022/08/christs-gifts-for-unity-in-body-of.html

‘The Church is Not a Zoo: Unity, Not Diversity, is the Church’s Communal Value’; https://bibleandmission.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-church-is-not-zoo-unity-not.html

‘Is Diversity a Christian Value?’; https://bibleandmission.blogspot.com/2019/10/is-diversity-christian-virtue.html

‘Issues Facing Missions Today: 50. Preserve the Unity of the Church?’; https://bibleandmission.blogspot.com/2016/04/issues-facing-church-50-preserve-unity.html

‘Issues Facing Missions Today: 48. Heretical Teaching and False Unity Then and Now; https://bibleandmission.blogspot.com/2016/04/issuesfacing-missions-today-48.html

‘Stay or Leave? Is John 17 Grounds for Staying in Mainline Denominations in Our Day?’; https://bibleandmission.blogspot.com/2019/09/stay-or-leave-is-john-17-grounds-for.html 

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