Dwelling in Unity

from November Newsletter 2016

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Ps. 133.1)

It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end of all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had to come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. This is his commission, his work. "The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people…If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared?" (Luther)

According to God's will Christendom is a scattered people, scattered like seed 'into al the kingdoms of the earth' (Deut. 28.25). That is its curse and its promise. God's people must dwell in far countries among the unbelievers, but it will be the seed of the Kingdom of God in all the world.

"I will…gather them; for I have redeemed them:…and they shall return" (Zech 10.8,9). When will that happen? It will finally occur visibly at the end of time when the angels of God 'shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt. 24.31). Until then, God's people remain scattered, held together solely in Jesus Christ, having become one in the fact that, dispersed among unbelievers, they remember him in the far countries.