As we read the New Testament and study the teaching and desires of Jesus, it becomes completely obvious that what God and Jesus desired for us is not what they had then nor have today. The Father, Son, and Spirit desired complete and total unification... not division and denomination. So what happened? The short answer is “Man got in the way”. In religion, major divisions occur when people confuse the what with the how. Look at the example of the Jews and their traditions.

In Israel, the how was of such importance that if the how was incorrect, the what became so polluted that it became meaningless. Here is an illustration. When God gave Israel the ten commandments, He said, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). God said no work was to occur on the Sabbath but the instruction contained no definition of work. Was it work to feed and water your livestock? Was it work to cook a meal? Was it work to tie your sandal? Before an Israelite could keep the Sabbath holy by not working, they had to have a definition of work. So Jewish leadership defined work for Israelites. Thirty-nine definitions of work are given. A Jew living by God’s law must abstain on the Sabbath from doing any act under those thirty-nine topics. The ‘intent’ was to make the command to keep the Sabbath day holy obeyable but the ‘how’ became elevated to the same level of importance as the “intent”.

This created two sources of authority. Those two sources of authority were ‘the written law’ [God’s Word] and ‘the oral law’ [tradition]. ‘The written law’ came from God. ‘The oral law’ came from men who handed down applications through the generations. So, “the what” came from God and “the how” came from men trying to obey God. The problem then and now are similar in many respects. What men decided [the how] became as or more important as what God said [the what]. Obediently following “the tradition” became just as or more critical to faithfulness!

Many warnings were given gentile Christians about associating faithfulness to God with observing Jewish traditions. Paul warned Titus of “rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision” (Titus 1:10). He specifically warned them against that Jewish influence. Such people were to be “reproved severely” to challenge them to be “sound in the faith” not in traditions of men (Titus 1:13). They were told to ignore “Jewish myths and commandments of men” (Titus 1:14). Paul said such people claimed to know God, but their behavior made it obvious that they were detestable, disobedient, and worthless for any good deed (Titus 1:16). They did not represent God’s intent!

When man gets out of the way and stops doing what he wants and does what God wants instead, the unity and the church that the Father and the Son desired in John 17 will shine brightly through.