Article
Oneness: The Miracle in the Church
“The congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul…”Acts 4:32 This is the description of the Church when it’s first born, perhaps just days or weeks after Jesus ascended and the Spirit arrived. It was the infant Church, and already the people of God were being joined together. God’s supernatural work of establishing real, covenanted relationships had already begun. It was not a step on the way to the Church becoming or achieving something; they had from the start everything they were supposed to be. All of the other things that would come - evangelism, missionary journeys, surviving persecution, displays of power - would happen within this context. It built their faith and showed all the possibilities of God in this Church He was calling together. As the Church grows, so much of Paul’s instruction is to build, encourage, and submit to this connecting work of God, and it’s for the sake of the relationships themselves, not so they can be used to get to something else.
If I only treat covenanted relationships as a means to an end, I will miss one of the Spirit’s greatest demonstrations of power. God puts believers together to live, to love, and to grow - we see and experience Christ together and in each other. Hopefully, other people can see Him in us, too.
It takes only a quick glance at the isolation, loneliness, desperation, and division in the world today (and in the church today) to see that bringing together people that really love each other, that have all things in common, that give to each as they have need, that claim nothing as their own, and are truly of one heart and soul is absolutely miraculous. It is as supernatural and powerful as any other demonstration made by the Church. Only God can do this. Of all the miracles (after salvation), this joining together, this perfecting into one is the most enduring and the most pervasive, because it meets a need for connection that’s in every one of us for our entire lives.
I may only need to be healed once in my life; I’ll need to be loved and connected always. Through the Holy Spirit’s work, to be made one with God, one flesh with my wife, one soul with my friend, and one heart with the Church will change every part of my life. If I really believe in this, if I really allow the Spirit to do this in me, it will fundamentally change who I am and how I live.