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Unity and Division in the Competing Models.
In this Bible study, we will explore the differences between the Family and the Synagogue with respect to unity and division.
Unity in the Family.
I give you a new commandment; love one another as I have loved you. All people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
(John 13:35)
As we have seen, love is the hallmark of the true disciples of Jesus Christ; when disciples ‘practice what they preach’, their love validates their testimony.
This is my commandment; that you love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this; that someone lay down their life for their friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.
(John 15:12-14)
Every human being has a deep desire to love and be loved.
Therefore, when people experience God’s authentic love in a family of Spirit-filled disciples, that love draws them to Christ. They are ‘born again’ into a loving family of Spirit-filled disciples.
There are numerous passages of scripture that extol the virtues of love with respect to maintaining unity, peace and harmony;
Above all, keep loving one another deeply because love covers a multitude of sins.
(1 Peter 4:8)
Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offences.
(Proverbs 10:12)
And let there be no doubt that love is the most effective way to share the Gospel;
If anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings them back, let them know that whoever brings back a sinner from their wandering will save their soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
(James 5:19-20)
And, of course, without love, we are nothing!
Love is patient and kind.
Love does not envy or boast;
it is neither arrogant nor rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
it is neither irritable nor resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never ends.
(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
Love is the glue that keeps the family together through the turmoil of life.
No so in the synagogue!
Unity in the synagogue.
The only way to maintain a semblance of unity in a system controlled by people, is through UNIFORMITY.
An army is probably the best example of organisational uniformity. In an army, every member wears the same uniform and marches in step; anyone who wears a different uniform or marches out of step, stands out like a sore thumb; an easy target for censure.
In the synagogue model, the basis of association is ‘uniformity of belief and practice’.
These beliefs and practices are usually expressed as a ‘Statement of Faith’; the synagogues’ creeds, confessions and constitutions.
This is ‘Us’! This who we are. We are different. We are right, others are wrong.
The synagogue model rejects and ejects anyone whose ‘beliefs and practices’ conflict with the synagogue’s version of orthodoxy.
Fit in or leave!
That was the synagogue’s message to Jesus.
By proclaiming himself as the fulfilment of the Messianic promise, Jesus would encounter the greatest opposition in the synagogues;
Coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue; they were astonished and said,
“Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is he not the carpenter's son? Isn’t his mother, Mary, and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Are not all his sisters with us? Then where did he get all these things?”
And they took offence at him.
(Matthew 13:54-57)
Since Jesus wasn’t going to leave or be silent, it wasn’t long before these offended Jews, especially the Pharisees, began plotting to kill Him;
But the Pharisees conspired how to destroy him.
(Matthew 12:14)
Then we find Hellenistic Jews taking offence at Stephen’s preaching which ultimately led to them stoning Stephen;
Then some of those who belonged to the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called); Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen.
(Acts 6:9)
Paul experienced his greatest opposition in the synagogues in virtually every town he visited on his missionary trips;
He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks … testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. When they opposed and reviled him … he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshipper of God, which was next door to the synagogue.
(Acts 18:4-7)
The same is true in the 'synagogues of Satan', those denominational Christian churches that hold fast to their sectarian traditions; where conflicts over dogma lead to divisions that never heal.
Division in the synagogue model.
No one puts new wine into old wineskins. The new wine will burst the skins; the wine will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed. New wine must be put into fresh wineskins.
Yet, no one after drinking old wine wants the new. They say, ‘The old is good.’”
(Luke 5:37-39)
A synagogue’s strict adherence to its entrenched ‘beliefs and practices’ , its ‘Traditions’, inevitably leads to conflict with God’s commandments.
You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition!
(Mark 7:9)
Tightly held traditions, shut down dialogue, censure dissent and, worst of all, shut out the Holy Spirit!
No one can serve two masters; either they will hate the one and love the other, or they will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
(Matthew 6:24)
In the final analysis, those who prefer their traditions, resist the new wine of change.
They may pray for revival but, by holding firmly to their traditions, they resist the inevitable changes that occur when the Holy Spirit brings revival. Revival is all about change! Refreshing change.
They have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God to “love one another” in order to uphold the golden calves of their tradition!
Their old wineskins are too rigid, too brittle, for the Holy Spirit’s new wine. Instead of a refreshing restoration of spiritual power, revival leads to conflict, bitter division and broken relationships. They kill the prophets!
The wineskin bursts and the new wine spills out; the church’s testimony is spoiled.
Not so in a loving family.
Division in the family model.
A man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife and they will become a new family.
(Genesis 2:24)
A family’s primary purpose is to raise healthy adults to take their rightful place in the world; babies are expected to become toddlers, then to progress through childhood and adolescence; to emerge as mature, independent adults who are ready to start new families. Every new family becomes a fresh wineskin.
Unlike the synagogue model, division in the family model is not only expected, it is an essential part of the Church’s mission to “be fruitful and multiply”.
In fact, division is the key success metric in the family; the parents have fulfilled their mission.
Division happens in the context of loving relationships; division is a time for celebration.
The loving relationship between parents and their independent, adult children doesn’t end; it simply undergoes a change as parent and adult child adjust to the new dynamics.
The love never ends, never breaks.
Next bible study.
In the next Bible study we will explore discipleship in the family-model church.
In the family-model church, new believers are expected to become disciples; to grow into maturity as effective, Spirit-filled disciple-makers.
The family celebrates when disciples leave to start new, independent, family-model churches.
Every new family-model church is a fresh wineskin ready for the new wine.
And Christ builds His Church!
The stone ‘cut out without hands’, the Kingdom of God, ‘grows into a mountain that fills the earth’ as multi-generational, family-model churches grow and multiply in love, without human organisation!
There has never been a better time to be a disciple of Jesus Christ!
