Knowing Christ, the Uniting Factor

Knowing Christ is essential for any and all Christians. For the Apostle Paul, it was the uniting factor between Jews and Gentiles. They had various customs and rituals but all that did not matter, for God in Christ has made them both a new humanity (Ephesians 2:15). The Apostle Paul also says, “For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything” (Galatians 6:15). Paul speaks of how the Church of Ephesus (Gentiles in particular) did not remember Christ, as they had learned him. They needed to be reminded that they were a new humanity (Ephesians 2:15) and that they were called to live a new moral life (See Ephesians 4:17-24). Jews and Gentiles together are “created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:23). This is how they have come to know and learn him through apostolic teaching and through their own relationship with him corporately and personally.

Does the Church, which appears to be divided today, need to hear this uniting message? I would say that this message absolutely needs to be heard. This message of unity involves being truly the community of God. This community works together to figure out how to live out what it means to be God’s workmanship, all the while remembering how we have learned Christ. So knowing Christ unites Christians from different traditions to encourage and enable each other through the knowledge of Christ to be the new creation and humanity that God has made them to be in Christ Jesus. It is the uniting factor.

Richard Mouw (President of Fuller Theological Seminary) spoke to 400 plus graduates on June 13, 2009. The graduates consisted of people from all kinds of Christian denominations and traditions. He “charged” them all with the same message of “knowing Jesus.”This is what unites us as Christians. Time after time even in my own life, I have looked at the differences that I had with other Christian traditions. I have since been challenged to look not at what divides us but at what unites us as Christians. A lot more could be said on this topic and I do think differences need to be looked at but we need to be careful not to jeopardize a united community of Christians.

Thanks for reading,

Marcelino