At the 2013 Peacemaker Conference, Daniel Teater, the President of Live at Peace Ministries, had the opportunity to call us to strive for unity. Using Philippians 1:27 to 2:11, he asked us,”What gospel is your life gospelling?” In other words, what news is your life transmitting? What good news is your life proclaiming?
Daniel explained that there are two ways we proclaim the gospel. First, there is the explicit theology or confessional theology that we hold do. This is the stuff on our websites and our creeds. Second, there is the implicit theology of how we live. Daniel explained that this implicit theology is the apologetic that his generation is “reading” (or rather observing), not the books filled with confessional theology. This is why the Apostle Paul calls us to walk “in a manner worthy of the gospel.” He calls us to live consistently with our gospel shaped citizenship.
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. – Philippians 1:27
The passage proceeds to call us to be of the same mind, to have the same love, and to seek each other’s interests. Daniel explained that the byproduct of gospel living is unity. He further explained that unity is something Christians have to fight for. The term “stand” is a military term, used when soldiers linked their shields together. The word “strive” is an athletic metaphor. So we shouldn’t make any mistakes about it, it is difficult to stand for unity together.
Disunity and discord do not promote the gospel. It scares away those who hear its sound. But unity is attractive music to observers’ ears. Unity is something we must strive for. After all, the gospel is at stake. John 17:20-23 states:
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Daniel ended his sermon by exhorting us: “Peacemakers, we have something precious to give the world…. what can hinder us is our implicit theology. If we don’t keep the gospel the core and live it in our relationships, they will see us and that is the last thing we want them to see. We want them to see Jesus.”
<Missed the 2013 Peacemaker Conference? Get summaries of the 2013 Peacemaker Conference Speakers here!>
