A couple of weeks ago, my Sunday School lesson was about the New Testament churches and how the Apostle Paul taught them to resolve relationship issues in the church. Of course, what he said applied a lot to our relationships today. The author of the lesson called it Paul’s promotion of unity versus uniformity. The two are not the same thing.
We recognize unity such as the United States is comprised of 50 states that each have some differences such as the accents of the South and the snow of the North. We recognize other ways of unity where we come together as a whole – family, fans of a football team, or working together to heal from a natural disaster.
Uniformity involves an overall sameness, such as requirements for a job applicant, application of the law to citizens, certain clothing as “uniforms” for a job, or approval of goods that are sold by a certain brand. As history has progressed, we see increasing demands for uniformity in our lives.
A problem arises when we try to make both of these the same, such as in our relationships, when we think there has to be uniformity in order to have unity. An example is when a church dictates certain types of clothing at church for members to be “Christian enough” or teenage girls who think certain brand name clothes or shoes have to be worn in order to be okay. This can be very subtle, but we really do have a lot of hidden beliefs about others having to be uniform with us before we will accord them unity with us.
Throughout the ministry of Jesus, He emphasized unity versus uniformity. Genesis 1:26 says that all of us were made in God’s image – yet each of us is a very unique human. Maybe we need to take that to heart.
