Plants in the Garden of the Lord (6)

Let my beloved come to his garden
And eat its pleasant fruits…
Eat, O friends!
Drink, yes, drink deeply,
O beloved ones! Song of Solomon 4.16, 5.1

The beauty of the whole
A church is a congregation of people united together in the love of Christ and devoted to His mission. As the Scriptures repeatedly indicate, a church is like a garden, where the Lord is cultivating luscious fruits, wholesome grains, and wonderful colors and scents to spread abroad for the blessing of the world. Each believer’s life is a plant in that garden, which blossoms from a strong soul toward the expectations of the Lord for full faith living. Together, congregations hold enormous potential for wafting the fragrance of the living Christ throughout their communities.

In any garden, the beauty, diversity, and bounty of the whole is much more enthralling, wonderful, and enriching than the fruit of any single plant. So also in the Church. The unity which Christians share with one another – in local congregations and between congregations in any given community – can greatly multiply and enhance the fragrance and fruit of Christ which issues from them.

Jesus taught as much. In John 17.21, He prayed that the members of His Body might be one, because, when they demonstrate that oneness they present a powerful, compelling witness to the watching world.

Churches today are not very much concerned about manifesting oneness in Christ. In Ephesians 4.3 Paul said that believers have to work hard to maintain the unity of the Spirit in bonds of Kingdom peace. It’s easy to let people irk and offend us, anger and disappoint us, or give us fodder for gossip or criticism. It’s hard work to resist such temptations. It’s easy for churches to remain isolated from one another in a community, never worshiping or working together, jealous and competitive, and cutting one another down behind their backs. It’s hard work for believers to work together as the garden of the Lord in their community, bringing forth many pleasant fruits for one another and all.

Strive for unity
But the garden of the Lord must strive for unity, both within individual congregations and among the Christ-honoring congregations in any community.

This is hard work. It means we have to go out of our way, break our normal routines, and try some things that might not feel comfortable at first.

In the local church believers must work hard to get to know one another, look for ways to encourage and serve one another, and take care that they don’t allow indifference, inconsiderateness, grudges, or unkind criticism to take root in their hearts. Such weeds of sin will surely stifle the full flourishing of the Lord’s garden.

At the community level, pastors should seek out one another for prayer and fellowship, discover ways of bringing their congregations together for worship and service to the community, and respect one another’s acts of discipline against recalcitrant members. It’s when the people in our communities see such evident oneness that they will detect the fragrance of Christ and be drawn – many of them – to the Lord and His garden.

Toward unity
As I said, this is hard work, and not the sort of thing that gets much urging or attention from church leaders.

But consider what’s at stake: Our witness for Jesus suffers when we allow our congregations and the churches in our community to continue going their own way, giving but lip-service to the idea of Christian unity. Where are the believers who will use their gifts and strength to bring about greater unity among the members of their churches? Where are the pastors who will take Jesus at His Word and submit to the hard work Paul mentioned in order to lead their congregations and churches to achieve real and visible unity in Christ?

The sooner such believers step forward, the sooner everyone will be able to enjoy more of the rich banquet of spiritual fruit the churches have to offer.

Where to begin? In the local church, we must teach members about the importance and practice of unity, sponsor meaningful opportunities for fellowship, and establish a ministry of shepherding for watching over the souls of all the members of the church. In the community, let pastors spend time together and begin praying together regularly. Plan a service of joint worship involving several congregations. Develop a common resource pool for ministering to the poor. Plan an outreach activity that will get all the churches involved in bringing the Gospel to the community.

No, we don’t see this happening very much, because, yes, such unity is hard work. But the payoff for liberating the garden of the Lord to flourish in fragrance and fruit is very great, indeed.

We have the Word of our Lord on it.

For reflection
1.  In what ways does your church work to create greater unity among its members?

2.  Do the churches in your community try to make their unity visible in any ways? Can you think of some ways they might do so?

3.  Paul said we must “work hard” at such unity (Eph. 4.3). Why do you suppose we don’t?

Next steps: Talk with a pastor or church leader about how your church might begin working harder at unity, both in the church and among the churches in the community.

T. M. Moore

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This week’s ReVision study is Part 5 of a 10-part series, “Full Faith.” You can download “Plants in the Garden of the Lord” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.