Together In Unity

by J. Miller | Category: Together In Unity | Feb 1961

Psalm 133, the fourteenth Song of Ascents, written by David, is a precious jewel in writing on the subject of divine unity amongst the people of God. It is a small psalm of only three verses, but what a sweetness radiates from it, as from the holy oil with which the priests of old were anointed ! and it is as refreshing to life as the dews of Hermon which nightly fell on the lower hills and on the land of Israel. Our attention is drawn at once, as we are called by David, to look upon the miracle of the work of God;

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is

For brethren to dwell together in unity " (verse 1).

It was wisely said by a servant of the Lord many years ago, that it had been a great difficulty in getting together, but now our difficulty was to learn to dwell together in unity.

Great indeed had been the birth-struggles of the children of Israel, as described to us in the early chapters of Exodus, and when they came to Mount Sinai, they were given their places in relation to the Tabernacle which was pitched amongst them, and they had to learn how to behave themselves in connexion with the house of God, an important matter which we all need to learn who are in God's house (1 Timothy 3.14-16). It is reckoned that the twelve tribes of Israel might have occupied 479,001,600 different positions in relation to one another and to the Tabernacle. There was one position for each by God's appointment, and any one of the others would have been wrong. We see in this what room the human will might have had to choose, but with one will to choose, and that the will of God, each tribe was assigned its God-given place in that divine unity, which was a copy of things in heaven.

First of all in the words of David we note that the people in view are a homogeneous people, and that they are brethren, the descendants of one father. They were not a heterogeneous folk, people dissimilar in kind to each other. Such a heterogeneous people were not in David's mind, nor can such a people ever dwell in unity.

In the past the children of Israel were a people apart from the other nations, that is, the Gentiles. Balaam voiced the divine conception when he said,

Lo, it is a people that dwell alone,

And shall not be reckoned among the nations" (Numbers 23.9).

Divine separation was vital to divine unity in the past, and it is the same in this dispensation.

What is it that makes possible a divine unity among brethren? The answer is, the word of God. The foundation of their life of unity was the word of God in the terms of the Covenant read to them by Moses, and we are told, "And all the people answered together (Hebrew, Yachad, unitedly, or as one), and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people unto the LORD" (Exodus 19.8). Only by doing what the LORD commanded could this people hope to dwell together in unity.

The words "together in unity" are the rendering given in our English versions of the A.V. and R.V. of the Hebrew word Yachad, which means, as we have already said, "to be united together, to unite, or to be unitedly together." The force of the word may be gathered from the words of David when certain men of Benjamin and Judah came to him to the hold, and he said to them, "If ye be come peaceably unto me to help me, mine heart shall be knit (Yachad, united) unto you" (1 Chronicles 12.17).

The rendering of the LXX of Yachad is Epi to auto, in Psalm 133.1. Both the Hebrew and the Greek words mean "together" and show that such as are together are united together. The Greek words Epi to auto mean literally, "upon the thing." Some render Epi to auto as "in one place," as, for instance, in Acts 2.1, but we judge that the unity of persons, both in several places in the Acts where the words are used, and also in 1 Corinthians, is what is before the mind of the Holy Spirit, rather than simply that the persons are gathered "in one place." We shall hope to see this in a further contribution on this subject.

The early Brethren, commonly called "Plymouth Brethren," conceived the idea of forming a communion of all who were partakers of the common life in Christ; that is, of all who were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. This ideal caught on with many believers, and still does, but birth cannot be the foundation of any community of men who propose to dwell together. The early brethren were not united in doctrine. They were not even united on the first command for obedient disciples, that is, baptism. Some believed in the immersion of believers, as in Matthew 28, while others held that if they were sprinkled with water as babies that was sufficient conformity to the Lord's command relative to baptism. Through disunity in the matter of doctrine the " Plymouth Brethren" were eventually rent in twain, into what became known as the "Exclusive Brethren" and the " Open Brethren." We do not use these terms derogatorily of brethren in any way whatever, but only by way of defining the two groups of brethren as they are generally defined. The division which took place between the two groups did not take place on the ground that the one group were brethren, that is, born-again persons, and the other were not; it took place on certain doctrinal points into which we do not now enter. Both groups were formed of confessed believers in Christ.

We hold, and hold most definitely, that to be Brethren, that is, born-again persons, is not the foundation of a divine unity. We hold as definitely that those who are together must be born-again persons, but obedience to the commandments of the Lord, and His further commands through His apostles, form the true basis for born-again people to be together in unity. As the Law given through Moses in the past was the basis of the life of God's people Israel, even so the Faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 8), the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ (James 2. 1), gives guidance to God's saints both individually and collectively today.

J. Miller | Feb 1961
Together In Unity