The Fork in the Road: The Man or the Plan, Part 15 (Kingdom and Community, Part 3)

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Jay F Guin

N. T. Wright on Unity

Thanks to Bobby Valentine for finding this!

PS — This is the last post until I return from Sabbatical.

About Jay F Guin

My name is Jay Guin, and I’m a retired elder. I wrote The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace about 18 years ago. I’ve spoken at the Pepperdine, Lipscomb, ACU, Harding, and Tulsa lectureships and at ElderLink. My wife’s name is Denise, and I have four sons, Chris, Jonathan, Tyler, and Philip. I have two grandchildren. And I practice law.
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2 Responses to The Fork in the Road: The Man or the Plan, Part 15 (Kingdom and Community, Part 3)

  1. Royce Ogle says:
    November 8, 2010 at 7:55 am

    I had watched this video last week. I love it! And I completely agree with his teaching on the unity of the church. I think most of us would agree. The question that is raised by this lesson is, what is the source of unity? And the answer is not "what" but "Who". It is our common oneness with Jesus and the Father (John:17), it is our common faith in Jesus that makes us one. The challenge is to empty ourselves of our self will, of our pride, of our selfishness, and submit to one another. We must live out our oneness.

    The unity of the church Wright describes is not achieved by doing worship services just alike, by getting everyone to agree on the mechanics of justification, or the events surrounding the 2nd coming of Christ. Loving one another as family members, Christ focused and grace driven daily living with each other. Unity does not come about by human effort. It is…We must put "self" down and let it be seen.

  2. Price says:
    November 8, 2010 at 8:23 am

    Read something that caught my attention this weekend that had never been highlighted in my mind before that I remember….Our discussions for the past few months may have prompted my sensitivity to it….Paul is discussing the interaction of members of the church with various disputes with one another in I Corinthians when he says this in 6:7…."Why not be Wronged ? Why not be Cheated."…….. It seems Paul would go to almost unthinkable levels to preserve the unity of the church and to protect it's reputation in the world…. But, the troubling part was not what Paul was willing to do…but rather what was I willing to do…How far would I go to protect the unity? Would I be willing to submit to another brother or sister when it was totally unfair ? Would I be willing to be "wronged" or "cheated" ?? I wasn't thinking about how people should conduct their business affairs but how they conduct their church affairs… To what extent will you and I submit to our brothers and sisters over non-salvific issues? Is it consistent with Paul's admonition here to stake a claim using "it's our Tradition" as the basis?

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