Thursday Thoughts Newsletter is your weekly dose of 3 brief ideas from me, 2 quotes I’ve recently enjoyed from others, and 1 question for you as you go about your week.
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3 Brief Ideas
Idea #1: It is impossible to have unity with people you look down on and think you’re better than. The key to real unity is not simply agreement, but humility. It first means having a right view of oneself before placing a particular view on someone else. But how can we ever arrive at a view of ourselves that is equal to someone else—especially with those who are so different than us in word, deed, view, background?
Pride and humility, division and unity—starts with the view of the self. We usually see ourselves as the aggregate of all we are and all we’ve done—accomplishments, possessions, intelligence, connections, gender, race, background, politics, class, or moral history—all the ways we typically measure ourselves against others. But this construction of a self-concept is rooted in pride: the great divider that makes unity impossible.
The Bible, however, provides a profound solution for pride, and therefore, for unity. It says that all people are not ultimately defined by the world’s stratified categories; rather, they are equal in worth and in dignity for having been made in the image of God and having been died for by Jesus Christ. Whatever earthly characteristics superficially divide us, the gospel message declares that all humans are equally dignified, equally in need, and equally loved, making us no better and no worse than each other. This is a self-concept rooted in absolute humility. Seeing yourself according to God’s standard, and not earthly standards, is the very basis that makes deep unity possible. As pride leads to our division, the cross leads to our humility, and our humility leads to our unity with others.
Idea #2: There is no substitute for humility when it comes to achieving unity. But there are many bad substitutes; and perhaps the worst is enforcing uniformity. The problem with making uniformity the ‘fix-all’ for unity, however, is that it suggests diversity equals division. But unity does not mean uniformity; if anything, it implies the opposite: a togetherness in the midst of said diversity. Unity doesn’t happen because of uniformity but because of humility in diversity.
Idea #3: There is no greater argument or example for diversity existing in perfect unity than the Christian Godhead, the ‘Trinity.’ The Trinity communicates, quite profoundly, that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit all exist together as one God, but are also entirely distinct as three separate persons. All three are equal in dignity as God, but all three are also entirely distinct as persons.
But we can see an amazing picture of unity-in-diversity in the way all three members of the Trinity relate to one another: the Spirit glorifies and submits the Son; the Son glorifies and submits to the Father; and the Father, in turn, glorifies the Son with the Spirit. In the midst of their unity and diversity, there is authority, and yet, it does not threaten either. How so? Because in the Trinity, they are humbling themselves to one another. As Christians, our starting point when thinking about unity, diversity, and authority is the Trinity. More than anything else, the Trinity shows us that unity does not mean uniformity, diversity does not mean division, and authority does not mean inequality.
2 Quotes From Others
“Because the Christian God is not a lonely God, but rather a communion of three persons, faith leads human beings into the divine communion…with others.” —Miroslav Volf
“We can’t be the salt of the earth if we sugarcoat the truth.” —Matt Smethurst
1 Question For You
What do you see as the world’s prescribed solution for ‘unity’? Political reform? Educational reform? Better messaging? What if the key to experiencing unity doesn’t start with ‘out there’ but ‘in here’? What if measuring yourself against other people has always been the problem to finding unity, not the solution to experiencing it?
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Thanks again for following along, see you again next week!
AG
