What does the Bible say about togetherness?

Although the truth has been covered over with the dust of centuries, whenever there has been a response to the light of God's revelation, something similar if on a smaller scale has followed. Personal, social, ecclesiastical and national distinctions have been obliterated, and Christians have taken up their responsibilities as still living in this life but in the light of another world. (The Age of the Ages, Eph. 3:21). They viewed their responsibilities in their correct perspective, and as subservient to the heavenly calling. The holiness of God's House was maintained, and hearts were united in devotedness to the interests of an absent Lord in glory but still rejected by the world as much as when He was here. In the psalm the fact of "brethren dwelling together in unity" is likened to the holy anointing oil put on the head and running down Aaron's beard. This truth finds its substantiation in Christ as the One who is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows and who as the Holy One ministers to us the unction or anointing which abides in us and teaches all things to us. But this anointing recognises nothing of the flesh: "Upon man's flesh it shall not be poured." (Ex. 30:32). Ever since the first attempt relative to the erection of the tower of Babel, man has sought to establish a unity of his own device, but God has never allowed such to last for a long period. He has always introduced a circumstance which wrecked a man-made unity. The best-laid schemes continually miscarry. Mere organisation will not hold Christians together in peace. The only security lies in allowing the Spirit of God to have His way with us. There will then be a display of the love of God and we shall give expression to what will obtain uninterruptedly throughout the universe in a future day. Oh, what a home! there fullest love Flows through its courts of light; The Son's divine affections flow Throughout its depth and height.

All true Christians would heartily respond to the Psalmist's exclamation — "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Ps. 133:1.) We have before us in scripture such an attractive record of unity in the earliest moments of church history (see Acts 2, 3 and 4), and we have before our very eyes such a distressing exhibition of the evils of disunion in the professing church in these latter times that we are hardly likely to be insensible to the pleasantness of that unity which is the will of God for His people.

So was it after Pentecost. In Acts 2, when, according to promise, the Holy Ghost came down to dwell with and in believers, God's new habitation was formed; and immediately after we read that the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of One soul (Acts 4:32), a unity which could only have been produced by, and displayed in, the power of that Spirit which they had received; a unity, too, which involved, as they were afterwards to learn, oneness with Christ, as their glorified Head, as well as with one another. Indeed, it is only the sense of union with Christ that could lead to brethren dwelling together in unity. But it is the fact, rather, which here we are invited to contemplate, and the acceptability of the fact to God Himself; for it is the Holy Spirit who calls our attention to this "good and "pleasant" spectacle.

Outwardly, among the true disciples of the Lord, there are many divisions, but there is a unity that marks them that can never be destroyed. Every true believer in the Son of God has His divine life and nature, and of this they never can be robbed. The fellowship that they have with each other in divine life, and in which they have communion with the Father and the Son, knows no divisions, for wherever true Christians meet they have this common bond, and communion together, whatever marks them outwardly in the confusion of Christendom.

What mighty bonds of unity! The Spirit of God, the lordship of Christ, the universal ubiquity of God, even the Father, all tend to bring into unity those connected with each as a divine centre. All the religious relationships of the soul, all the points by which we are in contact with God, agree to form all believers into one in this world, in such a manner that no man can be a Christian without being one with all those who are so. We cannot exercise faith, nor enjoy hope, nor express christian life in any form whatever, without having the same faith and the same hope as the rest, without giving expression to that which exists in the rest. Only we are called on to maintain it practically.

Another thing observe, there is the consciousness of what this unity is. "There is one body, and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith," etc. We are brought together, not only through being united, but by what we possess together, one Lord, one faith, etc., rich or poor. Another has his particular trials, and I mine; but both have God.

Union. "That they all may be one." "He should gather together in one the children of God that are scattered abroad." "That He might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross." And here, again, I would request of my reader to bear in mind that, while there was this beautiful diversity in the character and line of service of the Levites, yet they were one people, and that manifestly — they were one in life, one in standing, one in calling, one in inheritance; and so should it be with Christians now. We are not to expect uniformity of opinion on every point, nor yet are we to look for a perfect correspondence in the line of service and development of life; but then the saints should be seen as one people — one in worship, one in labour, one in object, one in sympathy; in a word, one in everything that belongs to them in common as the people of God.

The apostolic unity as such has ended, but thank God, the results of it are preserved to us today. The Lord says in verse 20, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us." It has sometimes been said that this unity has long since been broken. I do not believe it for one moment. There is a unity here of the Spirit that will never be broken; it matters not what has happened on the surface of things. This unity is discipular; the one we have already spoken of is apostolic, but I am persuaded that the unity of verse 21 is as inviolate as the unity of verse 11. It does not say that all will be unified in one so-called church. What it says is "that they also may be one in Us." Could we meet a true believer anywhere, whatever name he may bear outwardly, who does not believe in the Father, and in the Son? I believe that wherever the gospel has been received, and wherever this apostolic testimony has been made good in the heart of any believer in the power of the Spirit of God, such believers are still being maintained in this unity, in the Father, and in the Son. The end in view is "that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." We often meet people in whose circles we may not be able to move, but we tell them that we belong to the Lord, and they say "thank God, and so do we." We have heard people preaching the gospel, maintaining the one divine testimony, "That the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." These are terms, together with other terms we might use, which shew the unity mentioned here. It is not one and the same persuasion; not oneness in the same so-called church; but it is one in the Father, and one in the Son. It matters not what the saint of God may call himself, or in whatever circles he may move; if he truly confesses to this truth, he is bound to be one with us in the Father and one in the Son.

But His prayer was not for those only who surrounded Him at the moment, but “for them also which shall believe on Me through their word.” His desires include all who would believe on Him throughout the whole of the present dispensation. One we are in life and nature, but practically as far from it as we possibly could be. Still one we are, though without the grace to own it. Brethren—children of God—are one: one by being born of God, one by the life-giving power of Christ, one whether they dwell together in unity or whether they do not. The “good and pleasant” thing (Ps. 130) we neither exhibit nor enjoy, for the will of the flesh is to a large extent dominant, the Holy Spirit grieved, and Divine love swallowed up by the pride of our own hearts. How thoroughly ashamed of ourselves we should be!

God’s Word only knows one church. This church consists of all believers. They have been joined together in one body, not through membership of an organisation but by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13 and Eph.1:23).