Supporting article: UNITY by John Alley
(You may wonder at the relevance of this article to the church’s repentance for shedding innocent blood. The article proposes a fresh warning concerning 1 Corinthians 11:27-31 that highlights the critical importance of unity in the Body of Christ. "Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.")
Years ago in a prayer meeting I saw a vision. All of a sudden I could see straight through the brick wall from the prayer meeting into the main auditorium of the church building. It was midweek, and there was nobody in the auditorium at the time, of course, but what I was seeing in the vision was a normal Sunday morning meeting, with all the people worshiping.
And they were really worshiping, standing and singing, arms uplifted, many of them, and banners waving. And our worship was joyful, passionate and heartfelt. And these were good people. I knew them and loved them, they were devoted to the church, were leading good lives, and were people of faith and good works. They were as choice as Christian people anywhere.
But as I watched them in vision, the Lord spoke, and said: "The reason most believers struggle to obtain healing, and many find it difficult to get answers to prayer, is because they do not pray for the unity of the body of Christ."
This was an astounding statement, and like most unusual things when you first hear them, you are taken aback and are not quite sure whether what you have heard is really true. But as I pondered what I heard, I came to see clearly; this was a profound and indelible truth. A truth that should not be avoided by any of us.
There are several issues here. To start with, most Christians only think of the church as the group with which they meet. They might often pray for unity in that group, and they are always concerned about the people they know and see around them, and the degree to which they are in the faith and walking with Christ. But generally, most Christians feel no real concern about the degree to which believers in other congregations in the same town are in unity, submission and love, or truly walking with the Lord. The truth is, they don't usually spare it a thought. So generally there is no concern at all by most people about the health of the body of Christ as it occurs in other people's congregations.
But the real truth is, all the believers of all congregations in any given city are members of one body. In any given locality there is only one church! The believers may meet in varying congregations, and follow somewhat varying practices, yet if they are Christ's, then there is only one fellowship, one body, one baptism and only one table of the Lord in that city.
If we are not praying for the believers of other congregations, we are largely not praying for the church as a whole. If we are not praying for the health of the whole Church of the whole city, we are really not offering prayer for the body of Christ, as such.
Then there is the issue of the health of that body relative to our own. Every member of the body of Christ is spiritually connected to the health and well-being of the whole body of Christ.
In the body of Christ, we are members one of another. Whether we understand this or not, we are connected, jointed with, every other member of the body of Christ. This of course is not to every person who claims to be a Christian, or every person who goes to church, but those who have been genuinely redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus. This may in fact be less than half of all people who go to church or claim to be Christian. Nevertheless these believers are scattered throughout congregations and fellowships in the city, and we are spiritually joined to everyone of them. They and we together are in Christ, and form just one body. This means that the health of the body of Christ as a whole is affected by each of us, and each of us is affected by the spiritual state of others and the body as a whole. Therefore this really does need our prayers, and all believers need our love.
It would seem from what the Lord has said that if we carry his burden for His house and His body, that opens the way for us to receive miracle working grace concerning our own body and our own house. It makes sense to say that if we do not care about the body of believers, our carelessness and negligence affects our own health, our own well-being, or that of our families, and of our ability even to believe and understand and see clearly, and thereby obtain answers to prayer.
This raises of course the interesting statements found in first Corinthians chapter 11. There Paul gives the boldest and plainest teaching imaginable. He says "Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognising the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment" (1 Cor 11:27-31 NIV).
Often it is assumed that when the Scripture says a man ought to examine himself, before eating and drinking the sacrament as a means of grace, it is referring to him examining himself for any and every sin. But this passage is referring to one specific sin in particular. That is the sin of failing to ‘recognise’ the body of the Lord. This phrase might mean different things to different people. To some, it might be thought to refer to the presence of Christ in the meal itself. But I think the far more important and critical meaning is that it refers to the body of Christ as the church. It is therefore referring to sins against our fellow believers and the body of Christ as a whole.
We fail to discern the body of Christ when we think only of those few believers around us, and fail to recognise with proper love, honour, and heartfelt desire for unity with, all of the believers in our locality. When we are baptised we are baptised into this body of believers, which is Christ. We are jointed to him and to these believers. And to not love them, to not feel for them at all, and more often than not to think little of them, and think of them as being less than ourselves — this is not only spiritual ignorance, but sin that draws judgement.
Everywhere we go in the body of Christ we find the same problem. The church has been divided into many camps, separated by leaders, by doctrine, by attitudes, by practices, by traditions. And most Christians in any given locality have nothing to do with most other Christians. This would be bad enough, but the carnal nature still at work in most of us sees to it that this is not just division, but also envy, competition and even enmity. Not only division, but despising one another. Not just some hapless separation, it is also wilful sin.
We often hold all kinds of vile sinning attitudes toward others, yet all the while think we are better Christians than they. It is normal in churches everywhere for people to think of themselves as being right and others less right, and to therefore see oneself as superior, and ones congregation as superior, to others. These are vile sins of the flesh. We could take a lot of space here to describe these sins more fully, but you get the idea.
These sins, like every other, are sins for which Christ died, but concerning which most believers do not live in repentance. And it creates a very specific problem.
The problem is as follows: whenever we share in Holy Communion, and take the bread and, having given thanks for it we eat, we are making a proclamation into the spirit realm. We are declaring before God and angels and devils and men a very specific proclamation; we proclaim that "I am one with the body of Christ". This is what eating the bread means.
Christ's body was broken that we might be one, that we might be whole, that we might be one loaf. When you eat the bread you are making this claim before heaven and earth and hell. But if you fail to discern the body of Christ, i.e. if you do not recognise Christ in your brothers and sisters, you do not honour other congregations, other believers, and other leaders of the body of Christ, but rather despise them, and fail to hold them in high regard and love, and fail to pray for them, then you are committing this sin — the failure to recognise the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In so doing you have eaten judgment upon yourself. Paul tells us what these judgments are. He says "That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep". The weakness refers to spiritual weakness, the sickness refers to physical sickness, the falling asleep refers to premature death. This was the state of the Corinthian church, and it is the state of many congregations in the body of Christ today.
I have a very high view of the table of the Lord. And every week as I receive the bread and the cup, I pray certain specific prayers. I always ask the Lord to forgive me if I have committed any sin against the body; and I always ask the Lord to make me one with the body of Christ.
My advice to believers in general is to not do that foolish thing that some have done, and abstain from participating in the table of the Lord because they are not right with God. I think that is a foolish sin. Instead, we ought to come to him with a humble heart, and confess our sins, and partake in the table of the Lord. There is no excuse for abstaining, because this just leaves a professing believer in their sins. Instead we need to yield ourselves completely.
Could I ask you to take up the challenge of offering far more heartfelt prayer for the unity of the body of Christ? Let us believe together for the spiritual awakening of our nation, and many nations, in these last days, because the church will be revived in its love, in answer to your prayers.
With love, John Alley.
International Peace Ministry
John Alley Weblog: The Essential Unity of the Body of Christ
http://www.peace.org.au/modules.php?name=News&file=categories&op=newindex&catid=5prophecy – rain