Colossians 2:5 — For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.

One of the most beautiful treasures of our Christian Faith is the church. The single, unified, united church. I was reminded of this truth today as I walked past several different church buildings occupied by several different denominations.
This comment by Paul describes the ways in which the church holds together:
When he talks about “order” he’s talking about the external organization of the church — especially the way in which every member has their own talents and their own role.
When he talks about “steadfastness” he’s talking about the key internal value — the faith — that unites the church.
Paul, of course, was writing to a single rural church — but the strengths he called out are true for the church universal. But there’s a catch, of course.
The catch is that the individual churches, separately and collectively, are just not perfect! Many have fallen into just the trap that Paul identified:
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Colossians 2:8)
The risks that Paul knew were threatening the Colossians are exactly the same as we face today. There is the idea of adopting the world’s approaches to make the church “more effective”. There’s the tendency to replace biblical faith with personal cleverness. There’s the idea that somehow “the way we’ve always done things” is better than the way scripture says things should be done.
Things don’t change much do they? The exact same problems that Paul warned the Colossians about have plagued churches ever since. Actually, I think Paul predicted it to himself. It’s why it was a bit of a theme for him. He wrote in a very similar vein to the Ephesians:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:14-16)
So what’s the answer? I don’t think there is one until Christ returns. I just think it’s one of those never ending battles we have to fight … pushing back the tide … We have to fight for unity, inside each individual church and across churches. Fragmentation is the greatest tragedy …