Credo
18 Aug 2025
“In the essentials, unity. In the non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity (that is, love).”
Many readers will be familiar with this saying by Rupertus Meldenius, a German Lutheran who wrote in the late 1620s. Less familiar, however, may be the context in which he wrote: the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), a protracted bloody conflict that claimed an estimated 4 to 8 million lives. The war stemmed, in part, from disagreements between various Christian groups such as Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists.
History shows that denominational differences between Christians has at times resulted in violence, war, and death. This tragic state of affairs is deeply ironic, given how much the Bible has to say about Christian unity.
The Scriptures describe unity not as “good vibes only”. Neither is unity a simplistic homogeneity, where everyone thinks, feels, and acts alike. Christian unity encompasses wide-ranging diversity, but not limitless diversity. This article elaborates what it looks like to have such unity in encircled diversity.
Unity in encircled diversity, in the sayings of Scripture
Direct sayings. The Bible explicitly proclaims the value and virtue of unity: “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” (Psalm 133.1, NRSV). Within the Church, we are to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4.3, ESV).
This unity, however, is decidedly not uniformity:
“For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body—though many—are one body, so too is Christ. […] If they were all the same member, where would the body be? So now there are many members, but one body.” (1 Corinthians 12.12-20, NET).
Diversity within the Body of Christ is in fact God’s purpose and plan. The Bible speaks of the value of unity, and also that God intends for unity within a setting of diversity.
Indirect sayings. The Bible also speaks of unity in encircled diversity in an indirect fashion. We see this, for instance, as we read two of the Apostle Paul’s letters in conjunction with one another.
On the matter of whether Gentile Christians must be circumcised, Paul bellows:
“I am confident in the Lord that you will accept no other view. But the one who is confusing you will pay the penalty, whoever he may be.” (Galatians 5.10, NET, emphasis added).
The Bible is clear that in a matter as this, there can be no alternative views.
Yet, on the matter of observing special days or special diets, the same Apostle takes a vastly different tone:
“One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. […] I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. […] So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.” (Romans 14.5-23, NIV, emphasis added).
Here, the Bible acknowledges, even defends and legitimises the holding of divergent views by different individuals, all within one united Body of Christ.
On some matters – and these are important matters, otherwise they would not be in the Bible – diversity is acceptable, even desirable. Yet on other matters, Scripture describes certain bounds to diversity. This is therefore a bounded, encircled diversity.
We have seen such encircled diversity in Scripture’s words; it is present also in the Bible’s very structure.
Unity in encircled diversity, in the structure of Scripture
Different genres. Most readers will know that the Bible comprises texts of different genres – narratives, letters, poetry, laws, prophecies, etc. In order to listen well to God through this one canon of Scripture, we have to read each genre differently, on its own terms.
Sometimes, even a single text can comprise several genres. For instance, the Gospel according to Matthew contains both parables and narratives. Revelation has elements of letter, prophecy, and apocalypse. Is it not wonderful that God has chosen to communicate to us through a diversity of literary genres within the one canon of Scripture?
Fourfold Gospel. The fact that we have only four Gospel accounts – not one single account, nor more than four – is another example of encircled diversity.
Early in church history, some individuals did seek to formulate a single Gospel account. Marcion of Sinope (85-160 A.D.) edited Luke’s Gospel to fit his (heretical) theology, while Tatian the Assyrian (120-180 A.D.) harmonised the various Gospel accounts in his Diatessaron. However, while these writings received a fairly wide circulation, these single volumes were not ultimately considered by the Church as valid substitutes for the four plural canonical Gospel accounts.
In addition, numerous other non-canonical Gospel-style writings were in circulation during those early centuries, such as the Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of Thomas. These were not ‘secret’ or ‘hidden’ texts, for they were known and named by early Christian writers. Still, even though the early Church insisted on the diversity of the fourfold Gospel accounts, it did not embrace diversity to the point of recognising these other so-called Gospels as authoritative.
As theologian Michael Bird puts it:
“The four Gospels exhibit a plurality and unity that both encourages and restricts christological reflection. As a plurality, they demonstrate that no single Gospel, no one narration, and no solo story possesses a monopoly on describing who Jesus is. It takes the richness and diversity of four different accounts to come close to penetrating into the mystery of the man and his mission. […] At the same time, as a unity the four Gospels are in a sense constricting, setting the boundaries as they do for all christological discourse. They mark out the theological zone in which our discussion and devotion to Christ takes place. This proves that certain images of Jesus are out of bounds.” (The Gospel of the Lord, p.326)
Essentially, the very structure of the Bible – with four and only four canonical Gospels, no more and no less – is itself a display of unity within a bounded or encircled diversity.
Unity: a viewing platform
We can approach this notion of unity within encircled diversity through a metaphor. Imagine you have trekked up a mountainous path, and turning a corner, a vista of breathtaking beauty appears before you. Stepping onto the viewing platform, you whip out your camera. You soon notice that from different positions, different glimpses of beauty are to be had: From one spot, the splashing waterfall. From another angle, the sunlight glistening upon the canyon walls. From a third, the soaring peaks beyond. You are thankful to be able to move freely across the viewing platform, taking in the scenic landscape from multiple perspectives, thereby catching a richer, fuller sense of the wide and wonderful beauty that lies before you.
Then you see it. A laminated printout stuck onto the wooden palisade at the edge of the viewing platform. It is a notice of tragedy. A couple of influencers lost their lives right here, when seeking the best photo-angle, they climbed over the barrier, slipped, and plunged into the depths. You step away, saddened. At the same time, you’re thankful for those who erected the barrier fence in the first place, for without it, you too might have, in your pursuit of wide and wonderful beauty, slipped to your own death.
The landscape represents the Kingdom of God – wide, wonderful, beautiful, and impossible to fully appreciate from just a single perspective. Without diversity, one does not do justice to the Scriptural realities of Kingdom and King.
The boundary fence represents the canon of Scripture and the historic creeds and confessions of the Church – an encirclement not intended to stifle or constrain, but to protect. This encirclement touches on matters of primary importance: for instance, that God is the sovereign creator of the universe, that Jesus was both truly God and truly human, that Jesus actually died and physically rose from the grave, the reality of a final judgement and of God’s new creation – just to name a few. Mercifully, we don’t have to construct the barrier fence from scratch on our own, but we remain thankful for those who have done so before us. For without appropriate encirclement, diversity leads to death.
The viewing platform represents the unity that arises from encircled diversity. It is not a single viewpoint, but a wide area that allows for multiple viewing angles, all inside the protection of the fence. These represent matters of secondary importance: the mode of baptism, the significance of the Lord’s Supper, the place of sacraments, the role of women, the style of music or preaching, the mode of church governance, and so on. These are not unimportant. It is vital to study, think, discuss, and decide about these matters. Yet their importance is of a secondary degree. In other words, diversity in these areas should not worry, frustrate, or divide us. The diverse viewpoints within the safety of the viewing platform in fact give a richer, fuller sense of the Kingdom’s beauty.
Some readers may quibble with my labelling of items as being of either primary importance (part of the fence) or secondary importance (part of the viewing platform). Making such a classification is admittedly a crucial and complex matter, one which unfortunately cannot be pursued more deeply in this short article. Interested readers will want to dive into Roger Olson’s helpful text, The Mosaic of Christian Belief.
The point remains, nonetheless, that Christian unity is neither unbending uniformity nor boundless diversity. Instead, genuine unity entails a boundary fence which protects a viewing platform, that is, a unity in encircled diversity. This, as we have seen, is evident both in the sayings and structure of the Bible itself. And this allows us to take in the full breadth and beauty of the Kingdom, while not repeating the tragedy of killing one another in the name of the King.
The views in this article are entirely the author’s own and do not represent the official position of the Trinity Annual Conference or the Methodist Church in Singapore.
Rev Gilbert Lok is a minister of the Trinity Annual Conference (TRAC) of The Methodist Church in Singapore, and currently pastors at Barker Road Methodist Church.