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

2 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;

3 As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

Romans 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another.

I Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 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.

I Corinthians 10:17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 4:1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, 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.

Philippians 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ…that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.

MEMORY VERSE: Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another; love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. —I Peter 3:8

CENTRAL THOUGHT: Because unity is a precious gift from the Father, was prophesied of Zion, God’s church, and was prayed for by Jesus—His death being the means of gathering us into one; because by the new birth and the baptism by the Holy Spirit we are members of His one body, and therefore of each other; because we are called to holiness and oneness; we are now to forsake division and strife, and endeavor to keep, with humility, compassion, affectionate love, and godly conversation, this God-given unity and oneness.

WORD DEFINITIONS

Psalm 133:1 “A song of degrees”: a song of ascents, to the three great pilgrim feasts, i.e. to be sung on way up to Jerusalem. Psalm 120-134 and Psalm 84:6 were used in this way. “Good”: beautiful; agreeable. “Pleasant”: delightful; sweetly sounding; musical.

Psalm 133:2: “That went down to the skirts of his garments”: “Christian affection knows no limits of parish, nation, sect or age. Is the man a believer in Christ? Then he is in the one body, and I must yield him an abiding love. Is he one of the poorest, one of the least spiritual, one of the least lovable? Then he is as the skirts of the garment, and my heart’s love must fall even upon him. Brotherly love comes from the head, but falls to the feet. Its way is downward. It ‘ran down,’ and it ‘went down’: love for the brethren condescends to men of low estate, it is not puffed up, but is lowly and meek. This is no small part of its excellence, oil would not anoint if it did not flow down, neither would brotherly love diffuse its blessing if it did not descend” (Treasury of David).

Romans 12:10 “Kindly affectioned”: devoted, tender love; that special affection shared between members of God’s family. There is no other word like it in the New Testament. “In honour preferring one another”: take the lead or set an example in showing honor.

I Corinthians 1:10 “Perfectly joined”: complete; prepare; fit together; adjust down to properly fit; bring into proper condition and working order. It is the same word as “restore” in Galatians 6:1 and “perfect” in I Peter 5:10. It is also used in the term “mending their nets” in Mark 1:19.

I Corinthians 10:17 “One bread”: one loaf, referring to the loaf shared in the Communion of Christ. Because there is one loaf composed of many grains, we, who are many, compose one body.

Galatians 3:28 “Jew nor Greek”: terms “intended to be an exhaustive division of the human race, just as ‘bond or free,’ ‘male and female.’ This verse marks the immense stride made by Christianity in sweeping away the artificial distinctions which had been the bane of the ancient world and prevented any true feeling of brotherhood springing up in it. Christianity, at one stroke, established the brotherhood and abolished the distinctions” (Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers).

Ephesians 4:3 “Endeavouring”: make haste; give diligence; make every effort. The same word as “study” in II Timothy 2:15 and “labor” in Hebrews 4:11.

LESSON BACKGROUND

Psalm 133 is one of the most beautiful descriptions of Zion, God’s holy church, among the prophesies in the Old Testament. The Psalmist describes two substances that were very pure—the holy anointing oil put upon the high priest in the tabernacle, and the dew that descended upon the mountains. It gives us the truth that the unity given to the church is something very special and pure. It must descend from God, not come up from the earth, or man. It was not put upon strangers, nor mixed up for personal use. Dew is not just any kind of water; it is distilled—the purest of all liquids.

Jesus prayed that we all might be one; He then gave His own body to bring to life the church, His bride, and with that offering of Himself He gathered all His scattered people into one body. In the last supper with His disciples, He portrayed this with the symbolism of the one loaf of unleavened bread He shared with His disciples and the one cup of which they all drank. Paul clearly applied this when writing to the Corinthians about the purity of the one body of Christ.

In other epistles, Paul enjoins those who have been called into one body to stand together, strive together, have minds together; to have tender love, compassion, courtesy, humility, forbearance, patience and gentleness toward each other.

As we have studied in earlier lessons, there were many different kinds of people now worshipping together in one church. There were different locations, different disciples with differing gifts, distributing the gospel with different methods. Paul himself had strong differences of opinion with his own co-workers; at times they went their separate ways (as in the example of Barnabas and John Mark going on a separate journey from Paul and Silas, Acts 15:36, and the dissension with Peter, Galatians 2:11). We find later hints of reconciliation and fellowship.

—Sis. Angela Gellenbeck

DISCUSSION:

1. Comparison: To what substances is unity compared?

2. Special Kind: What kind of love were the brethren to have?

3. The Same Kind: In I Corinthians 1:10, what three things are to be the same?

4. Sharing Communion: Jesus’ body is compared to the ______ ________.

5. No Difference: What distinctions between people are done away in Christ?

6. Keeping Unity: What attitudes and actions do this?

COMMENTS AND APPLICATION

“All efforts of union but that of God’s holiness is like pounding cold crooked pieces of iron against each other to make them fit together. The more blows, the more crooks and differences. Put them into a furnace of white heat, and they will lose their cold, stiff, crooked individuality, and flow into one mass.

That is God’s way of uniting his people, in the fire of the Holy Spirit…On the plane of Bible holiness, no outward observances are made a test, in fact nothing is made a test of fellowship. For holy men ‘judge not from appearance, but judge righteous judgment.’ ‘If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin’ (I John 1:7).

Fellowship is of the Spirit (Philippians 2:1), and exists where heart-purity exists. It is the conscious blending of hearts filled with the same Holy Spirit. One may have been led into all truth, the other not. This does not interrupt fellowship. Nevertheless it is the duty of such as “know the truth,” in meekness to instruct others who do not. Ignorance of some truth does not destroy fellowship, but resisting the truth does; because it forfeits salvation. We must not sanction people’s errors, but if saved, show our love and fellowship to them, so long as they do not give the evidence that their wrong doctrines have become willful, or they have in some way lost salvation. Then fellowship ends, but love and kindness still continue in faithful efforts for their salvation.

To ignore fellowship simply because of some doctrinal error is bigotry. To agree to disagree, or to put on an equality truth and error, is babel confusion. To know the truth is our privilege; to teach the truth our duty; but to have fellowship with the pure and upright of heart is an involuntary and spontaneous fact. Sects are the result of carnality; nothing but perfect holiness destroys carnality, and thus removes both sectism and its cause. The fire of God’s love saves the soul, harmonizes all hearts that receive it, leads them into perfect and uniform obedience to all truth, and drives afar all who refuse to pass through its purging fire, and gain the plane of holy fellowship” (D. S. Warner, The Church of God, What It Is and What It Is Not).

When Bro. Warner wrote these words, he was in the height of an unmistakable movement of God all over the world, as thousands of saints caught the vision of holiness and unity and came together in one body. Shortly after Warner’s death in 1895, several divisions rocked the momentum of the movement, bringing shock and sadness to precious souls.

People divided over the doctrine of inward cleansing in sanctification, the issue of racial integration, and the prohibition of outward adornment. Many souls were discouraged and gave up their profession; others went back to their former sectarian churches. Some formed strict, harsh sects of their own, and some drifted, isolated, searching for likeminded people with whom to fellowship. The mainstream group began spiraling downward, taking in worldliness and human-led organization. Splinter factions formed different groups, each keeping the name, “Church of God” and each professing to be the “true body.”

Today many find themselves sifting through these many pieces and earnestly desiring to be that biblical Zion, that city set upon a hill, the holy bride of Christ. We are at the midnight hour, waiting for the bridegroom. Will we go with Him to the marriage feast, clothed in white raiment, or will we be foolish, not having the oil of the Holy Spirit? We have been given a precious heritage, a legacy of truth preached in its fullness and demonstrated by godly lives. We have the vision laid out in the Scriptures of God’s pure and holy church. It is our responsibility to be filled with the Holy Spirit and live out that pure and holy fellowship that comes from above. Let us sincerely “make every effort” to keep, restore and seek the unity of the Spirit. May God help us!

—Sis. Angela Gellenbeck

REFLECTIONS

The piano is one of the greatest musical inventions of all times and to enjoy its music is one of life’s great pleasures. There is something distinctively beautiful about it—from the simplest melody to the most complicated and intricate masterpiece.

Diverse notes placed in different positions all along the keyboard. All equally important. All in their respective places. All silently waiting for the master’s touch. Each key tuned individually, not to each other but to a common pitch.

The proper tuning is imperative to the harmony. Yet the process of tuning is both rigid and delicate. The ‘tune master’ must twist the screws and stretch the wires and apply the pressure seemingly to the point of breaking until he hears the right sound— that perfect note.

Every key that will be used by the master must be tuned no matter how painful the process. For one key to be out of tune or silent when touched, impacts the continuity and harmony intended by the composer. That single note was absolutely necessary at that particular moment in that specific place.

We are diverse people of diverse ethnicities. Our backgrounds are different, our abilities are different. One is not better than the other, just different from the other. We must remember that we are different by the design of the Creator and not by accident. And just as one key on the piano cannot subjugate nor take the place of another, neither can we. We each are needed equally to produce the harmony intended by the Master.

I am amazed at how an accomplished pianist can adeptly navigate the keyboard never hitting an off note. God is the master at harmonizing his people. He makes no mistakes. Our duty is to allow ourselves to be tuned by his Spirit and in tune with his Will. We cannot tune ourselves to a political agenda, to a church group or to an arbitrary doctrine. The Holy Spirit is our “common pitch” We must be tuned to the Spirit of God and by the Spirit of God. Only then can we truly be in harmony with one another.

—Bro. Darrell Johnson

Let Us Be One

Come all ye ransomed, let us be one,

One as the Father, Spirit and Son;

Heart joined to heart and hand joined to hand,

Let us march together to the promised land.

Hear ye the call from heaven today,

Let all division vanish away;

Love all embracing then will unite

In a host triumphant for the truth and right.

All ye are brethren, Jesus hath said,

All of one body, having one head;

Only one heaven all hope to gain,

Let us not divided anymore remain.

Sweet is the fellowship that doth flow

Into the hearts this unity know;

Strong are the ties that bind soul to soul,

They shall not be severed while the ages roll.

Chorus:

Let us be one, O let us be one,

So that the prayer of Christ we fulfill;

Let us be one, yes, ever be one,

Thus shall we do God’s holy will.

—C. W. Naylor #112, His Praise Anew Published by the Gospel Trumpet Company, 1936