One Accord

The joke goes, “What kind of car will be driven in heaven?” Answer: “A Honda, because the Christians will be in one accord.”

This is a double entendre. Besides the pun, Christians are often jibed for not getting along, and some assume heaven is the only place that unity will happen.

Not so. The joke actually comes from verses like Acts 2:1 which says, “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.”

This was just after Jesus had died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. His followers were in an “upper room” doing what Jesus told them to do. They waited until they were “baptized with the Holy Spirit.” While together, Acts 1:24 says they also “all continued with one accord in prayer . . . .”

We assume our unity comes from the Holy Spirit, and that is generally true, but in this situation, the Spirit had not yet come to fill these believers, yet they still were driving that Honda—in one accord. My curious mind wonders what united them.

The Bible says those who believe in Jesus receive new life from Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Historically, the Spirit’s indwelling happened in two distinct events (Pentecost and for the Gentile believers in Acts 10) after they believed. While some believers think this is still the way these things happen, it seems to me that since then, new life and the Spirit are given at the same time. Rather that get out of the Honda and argue about it, one thing is clear; these people described as being in one accord were believers before the Spirit came. They had at least some kind of unity.

Some of their ‘oneness’ is described in Ephesians 4:1-4 where Paul tells us to “walk worthy of our calling . . . in humility and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were 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.”

All believers have one hope; we know we are going to heaven when we die.

All believers have one Lord; Jesus is our Lord and King, the one that we believed in and follow.

All believers have one faith; we all believe that Jesus died and rose again. For those in Acts, most had seen Him and some had observed Him ascend into heaven.

All believers trust one God, unlike the Greeks, Gentile nations and pagans who worship a plethora of gods.

All believers know one Father and that they we are adopted into one family as His children. These in Acts knew that He was in all of them; they could see it in the way their lives had been transformed.

So why the disunity now? Why the joke that needles the well-known inability for Christians to get along?

Jesus said, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Paul, Peter and John repeated His warning. False teachers who would come in and spread lies. These lies could ruin unity.

Besides that, we have our own sin nature to battle, our sinful, “I want what I want when I want it” or “My way is better than God’s way.” Both motivations ruin unity.

Instead of fretting over Christians driving off in their separate directions, I’m encouraged by the unity we do have. I’ve served on various committees and been in Bible studies that involved people from many Christian denominations, and even though our background and approach to problems varies, God has given us amazing unity.

Today I will remember our unity, praise God for our unity, and when I talk to anyone whose ideas are contrary to mine, instead of wrangling about our differences, I will jump in that Honda and seek common ground. In that one car we have one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all.