I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
— Philippians 1:3-6
The saints as luminaries are constituted out of the organic oneness they share with Christ, the apostles, and the other believers. The organic oneness we enjoy is not merely a oneness with Christ alone, or with the apostles alone, or with the other believers alone. It is a oneness among the apostles who are with Christ, and who are one with all the saints. This oneness is also with the saints who are one with Christ, with the apostles, and with the other believers. The true organic union is displayed in the book of Philippians. In such a church the saints rejoiced in this oneness together with Paul.
Such oneness can never come about as a result of harassment, of course. If I have to demand that you be one with me because I have served you, then the genuine oneness is certainly missing. The organic oneness that exists among us is a sweet reality. When I call a family member, for instance, I do not need to summon up some sort of effort to do so. Perhaps the conversation doesn’t have much content in one sense, but in another sense, it has a wonderful, sweet content. In the church life, however, it is possible to have a lot of “content” in our fellowship, yet still be lacking in the sweet reality of this oneness.
Adapted from Oneness and the One Accord, page 58.
Tomorrow: “One by Focusing on Christ”