A NEW COMMANDMENT

WBS.305

A NEW COMMANDMENT

Psalm 133:1  Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

Unity.  It is a concept most understand well enough to explain to others; but it is an experience almost no one practices.  The unity of “the brethren” is a very common teaching of the New Testament.  Most believers are familiar with the verses; and yet, where is there any denying of self-centered responses and reactions to our brothers and sisters in Messiah in order to maintain unity?  We don’t like their clothes.  We don’t like their personality.  We don’t like their lifestyle.  We don’t like their financial status (or lack of status).  We don’t like their body odor.  We don’t like their doctrine.  Any and every reason we can conceive forms the basis of a self-justified reason why we do not have to have fellowship with others, or (dare I say it) why we are not willing to lay down our lives for them.

I believe were it not for the faith and patience of our Master Yahushua, he would wipe us off the face of the earth and start over.  There is little reason to look at his brethren today and be proud of how we have kept his one new commandment.

John 13:34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

John 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Paul told the believers in Corinth that they were carnal. Just what, do you suppose, was at the root of their carnal minds?  They not only tolerated separating from believers who differed in their doctrinal beliefs, or in their preference of spiritual teachers; they promoted it; and it produced envyings, strife and divisions.

1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Master Yahushua Messiah, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Messiah.

13 Is Messiah divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

1 Corinthians 1:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

This word “divisions” (schisma) means “a tear or rent.”  It represents a wounding.

To the Roman believers, Paul explained further the danger of a carnal mind, explaining that a carnal mind and walking in the flesh (as opposed to the leading of the Spirit) were inseparable.

Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against IAUE: for it is not subject to the law of IAUE, neither indeed can be.

8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please IAUE.

Paul devotes the better part of Ephesians 4 to this topic.  Divisions among the body of Messiah cause the body not to be visible, not to function with the power and authority that is its right and its responsibility.  How can a city possibly see and experience the force and power of the “ekklesia” (the assembly of the called-out ones) when it is subdivided into hundreds of individual churches, each with its own name and doctrinal beliefs and programs and activities; each ignoring every other congregation of supposed believers throughout the city?

Ephesians 4:1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Master, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

To walk worthy of the faith of our Master Yahushua Messiah, we will walk with ALL lowliness and meekness, not just some, or not just some of the time.  The first lesson in discipleship explained by our Master is to take his yoke upon us and learn of him, for he is meek and lowly in heart.  If we have not entered into his meekness and lowliness of heart, we have yet to demonstrate that we even want to be his disciples. (See: Matthew 11:29)

There is a huge difference between patience and longsuffering.  Patience endures circumstances; but longsuffering endures people.  It is longsuffering that is missing from the Body of Messiah today.  Patience and longsuffering are paired in the New Testament; but not here.  All three attributes Paul commands of us here deals with our relationship with each other instead of with hardship or difficult circumstances.  Lowliness positions us in the body as the servant of all. Meekness restrains our ambition for prominence in the body.  Longsuffering endures every single aspect of another brother or sister that would naturally form a reason we could justify breaking company with them, or to judge them, thus providing what we think is a just cause to break our unity with them.

Notice Paul’s language in verse 3. “Endeavoring” (spoudazo) to keep the unity.  This word includes a sense of haste, of urgency, seeing the objective as having ultimate importance. The unity of the brethren is something to be preserved and protected at all costs.

Ephesians 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Messiah:

16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Love is the motivation that produces longsuffering. Where love is absent, unity is unimportant; because only love is selfless. Without love, it is too easy for us to justify reasons to judge our brothers and sisters and to separate from them, or refuse to come to their aid; and yet, Paul reminds us that we are born into a body.  We cannot help the nature of the New Man, the New Creature we have become by faith in Yahushua Messiah.  We are members of only one body; and each member has something that the whole requires; and it is through the medium of love that each member can be successful in contributing that which is theirs to contribute.  We all need everyone’s contribution to the whole; for we are members of the whole.  How foolish it is to think and behave otherwise.

Ephesians 4:25  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

Luke 6:31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

32 For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.

Luke goes on in the following verses to define the nature of the love the Master commands of us.  We are to lend without expecting it to be repaid.  We are to love our enemies.  We are to do good, to be merciful, to judge not, to condemn not, and to forgive.  If we extend such virtue to all of our brothers and sisters, unity will be a foregone conclusion.

James tells us to be doers of the Word and not hearers only (James 1:22).  It is the hearers-only who are responsible for the disunity in the body of Messiah. The doers of the Word have taken into consideration all of the instruction shown in the Scriptures above. James also says that the hearers-only are deceiving themselves.  How much do you suppose they have been deceived?

1 Corinthians 11:18 For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.

19 For there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

There must be “heresies” among you.  This word is translated “sect” more often than “heresy.”  It was used of the sect of the Pharisees and the sect of the Nazarene. It represents a breakaway group.  Here, within the body of believers, Paul says they are a necessary part of our experience because their behavior contrasted with the behavior of the true disciple sets apart the true disciples as those who are the approved.

1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

Yahushua gave us one new commandment. Will we be content to be hearers of his Word deceiving ourselves, or will we be a doer of it and love the brethren, maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?