In Galatians we see an encounter between Paul and Peter at Antioch. It has to be remembered that the initial Church was all Jewish. And even at that time the Jewish teachings and traditions were well over a thousand years old. Imagine for a moment, a thousand years of history, teachings and interpretations and ritual. You were special, Gods own called out people and everyone else were Gentiles, apart from God.
In Acts 10 we see that Peter encounters God in a vision on a rooftop. A sheet comes down with every kind of unclean animal that Jewish people were forbidden to eat and God tells Peter to rise and kill and eat. Now, this would be something like Abraham being told to take his son up the hill and burn him to death. How could this be God? This is the mental and emotional anguish that Peter must have wrestled with as he defies God three times, three times brothers and sisters. At that very moment, the servant of Cornelius the Gentile arrives. The answer to Peter's vision just knocked on his door. How would you like a question to God to be answered so quickly? And we know what happens next, he goes to Cornelius's house and witnesses the Holy Spirit come down on that household just as it had come down on them at Pentecost.
Now back to the Galatians. We see that Peter and others including Barnabas were taken up with hypocrisy. The revelation had been given by God Himself about the Gentiles yet Peter and the others were still afraid of those who came down from Jerusalem and insisted that the Gentiles must be like them if they were to be part of the Body of Christ. Thank the Lord that Paul, quite apart from any leadership in Jerusalem, had been taught himself by vision and revelation about the nature of the Body of Christ and so he withstood Peter and the leadership of Jerusalem and insisted that they were being hypocrites by insisting that the Gentiles must live like Jews in order to be part of the Body of Christ, they were adding to the Gospel and Paul would have none of it.
Now, before you are too hard on those early believers who were Jewish by birth, I want you to consider how your own common experience may clash with simple truth. If Peter was so bold and conflicted as to say " not so, Lord," ( and this is an impossible phrase is it not, how can He be the Lord of our life and we say no to Him) three times then could this not happen to you? Now what is the simple truth that I am talking about that the vast majority of Christendom say " not so Lord?" Here it is.
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. (1Co 1:10)
With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.......And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Eph 4:4-13)
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us (Eph 2:14)
That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.(Rom 15:6)
Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; (Php 1:27)
And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.(Act 4:32)
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (Joh 17:21-23)
Now brothers and sisters, this is the simple truth of the Scriptures. I began and ended those Scriptures quotes with the Scriptures I believe are most important to us as the Body of Christ. Apostles and prophets and evangelists, pastors and teachers were given to us, according to the Scripture I gave you, "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith.And of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Eph 4:4-13) This of course ties into precisely what Jesus says in John 17 "that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
The purpose of being perfect in one was so that the world may know that God loved them so much that He sent His only Son. This unity that is commanded by God is for a witness to the world. And it is commanded by God. What then shall we say to God? Shall we stagger at the prospect of a Body of Christ without the middle walls of denominations? Is this any more staggering that what Peter had to wrestle with on the roof? Will you say "Not so Lord?" Will your excuse be that you have never seen nor contemplated such a thing? Do you consider some things unclean that God Himself has cleansed?
Jesus has called the Body of Christ to be one even as He and His Father are one. That is simple truth. Will you allow your common experience to disavow the word and the commands of God? Will you appeal to history or tradition to justify your disobedience? Will you allow the fact that we have failed miserably in the last 1700 years to stand together as one to nullify the calling and the commands of God and His Apostles? God is calling to His remnant children in these days to come out from amongst a system of worship that is fundamentally flawed on a structural level. The worship and gathering of almost all churches are structurally flawed in that they suffocate the free movement of the Holy Spirit and thereby disallow the preeminence of Jesus in our midst.
The Lord is gathering together a people in these last days who will stand in unity and bow their knee to His commands to walk in unity. He Himself has drawn them out and is drawing them out from a deeply flawed system. Before He returns to this earth He shall have a people who will stand as one even as He and the Father are one and He will pour forth His glory on that Body, for when the Body of Christ truly stand in unity He will command a blessing to fall upon them like the dew of Hermon falls upon the mountain. And that blessing will be life in Him and that more abundantly. Being found in Him, reveling in His presence, counting all trials and persecutions a light thing indeed for the eternal glory and honor of the Living God. What say you to the simple truth of God?