Unity in Diversity

People like to be with people like themselves. So a strong society needs agreement on a core set of beliefs to remain united. A great deal of diversity can be tolerated, provided people accept these unifying beliefs. Not everyone has to accept the unifying beliefs, but if they are widely accepted, those who don’t like them will have to go along to function within the society. (Allowing people freedom to disagree with the dominant beliefs, provided they do not disrupt society was once called tolerance).

For many centuries, Christianity provided the unifying beliefs that held society together in the Western world. The principle of loving one another as Jesus loved us allows people of diverse cultures to live in unity. A tax collector and a zealot could work together, because they were committed to following Jesus.

At its best, the church tolerated a variety of cultures, provided people accepted some core beliefs. (At its worst, the church persecuted minority beliefs).

With the advance of secularism, belief in democracy has been the unifying belief that holds nations together. Now faith in democracy is on the wane, under pressure from identity politics.

In modern society, tolerance is becoming the dominant belief. Differences are to be celebrated. This has produced great freedom, but it cannot unify a society, because it builds diversity at the expense of unity. If this trend continues, society will be torn apart by class conflict and identity politics.

If there are no unifying beliefs, the only thing that can hold a society together is dictatorial state power, often justified by fear of external enemies.

Unity

NT Wright on Unity

It is quite easy to do unity as long as you don’t care about holiness.

And it is quite easy to some sort of holiness, if you don’t care about unity,

but doing the two together is jolly difficulty.

Person (15) Unity

I presented this diagram for analytical purposes, but it is really a distortion. A human person is not many bits joined together. Each person is a unity.

Even the faculties that I have described are not as distinct as I have described them. My memory is not an external hard drive that can be unplugged and separated from the rest of my person. Memory cannot really be fully distinguished from the mind and the imagination. It actually exists in the cells of my brain, so is part of my physical body, to. The Holy Spirit can operate through my hands, not just my spirit.

Paul was a Hebrew, so he saw the human person a unity created in the likeness of God. Even when he refers two different aspects of a person, he stresses their oneness. Even the verse which is often quoted to justify a Greek tripartite view of the person is really about unity.

May the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly (holoteleis); and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved whole and complete (holokleron), without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thes 5:23).

The use of two “holo” words is interesting. Holoteleis means whole or complete to the end. Holokleron means whole or complete in every part. The human person is one, and will be kept whole and complete until the end.

Order (1)

Last week I wrote these words.

Most of order in a society does not come from government,
but from people being responsible and cooperating with each other.

The statement is true, but it only applies in those societies where there is a culture that unifies people round a common set of moral standards that encourages respect for other people.

When unity of values or respect for people disappears, cooperation and responsibility no longer sustains an orderly society, so those with power eventually resort to political and military force to keep order. The problem is that force can only produce a semblance of order with the forces of disharmony smouldering just below the surface. The other problem is that soldiers and police can punish the people who attempt to destroy a society after the event, but they cannot prevent them from their harm. A society held together by force will be an unpleasant place.

Democracy cannot produce a unified culture, because it is a winner-takes-all system that decides which cultural group shall dominate all other cultural groups in society. The democratic process exacerbates cultural tensions.

Iraq and India are examples of this divisive diversity. They both contain an amazing range of ethnic and tribal groupings, laced with diverse religious beliefs. In absence of a unifying culture, such societies can only be held together by force. Saddam Hussein achieved this in Iraq. The United States military power has also managed go create an uneasy order, but Iraq will never have more than that without a unifying cultural force.

The British Empire created a semblance of order in India, but it never had the true order produced by cultural unity. Since the British left, many assumed that democracy could be a unifying objective. However, under democracy the winner takes all. The strongest cultural group gets to control the less powerful groups, so actually democracy is a divisive force. Democracy cannot provide the cultural unity needed to hold a diverse society together. Recent events in India are the natural consequence of intense cultural diversity breaking through the restraints of political and military force.

Standing Together

Sickness is tough to deal with. Resisting Satan while standing alone is difficult. It is hard to have faith when burdened with sickness. Resisting is hard when we are weak or unwell. We need others to stand with us and do battle on our behalf. If we are under attack by sickness, it is hard to stand alone. This is the main reason that the modern church does not have victory over sickness. Christians are often isolated, so Satan is able to pick them off one at a time. Christians have compassion for friends who are sick, and often ask God to heal them, but they rarely go into battle with them.

Paul left Trophimus sick at Miletus (2 Tim 4:20). This is the only case of sickness in New Testament that was not healed. There is no explanation, but Paul complains that his colleagues had deserted him and left him alone. I presume that he was isolated and under pressure, so he did not have the strength to overcome the attack on Trophimus. No one was standing with him.

Victory over sickness comes from being in relationship with Christian friends, who will go into battle against a sickness attack and push through to victory.
Christians need to be with people who have victory over sickness.
Two or three people have more authority than one standing on their own. The sick person might not be that confident in resisting sickness. If some friends join in declaring that the sickness has no legal right to be in his body, the sick person will be more resolute.

The faith of friends can be really important.

• The paralytic had friends with faith for him to be healed (Luke 5:18).
• The man by the pool had no friends to stand with him (John 5:5-7).

A sick person may be so overwhelmed that they struggle to have faith and speak with authority. The key thing that the friends can add is extra faith.