One as the Sum of its Parts/The Flesh and the Spirit

 One as the sum of its parts:

The Flesh and the Spirit:

What man has makes mankind one; what man does with what he has tears mankind apart. Let's talk about societal ills. There are many from divorce to ethnic cleansing. The key point of all of society's ills is division. Mankind is focused on differences. Mankind has the mindset of separation, independence, individualism, unrestraint, and self. The mind of man seeks everything except unity and oneness. Why do we always look for the differences?

The basic building block of society is marriage. It is a condition of union where individuals abandon the isolation of individualism in favor of unification. Unification is defined as the process of being united or made into a whole. A whole is defined as a thing that is complete in itself. Synonyms for complete include absolute, concluded, and perfect. All of this suggests that the state of being one is whole and perfect, overlooking differences, and instead, focusing on the similarities that bind together.

The cornerstone of society, the family, is meant as a unity; a unity of blood, a unity of flesh, a unity of values. In other words, oneness is the cornerstone and building block of mankind. Again, let me remind the reader of the words of Jesus Christ: a house divided can not stand. It was his response to the scribes' claim that “by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.” In a broader sense, it speaks of spirituality in every instance. If I portray spirituality as a mindset, we may see that opposing thoughts lead to devolvement and ruin. If I portray spirituality as a lifestyle, we may see that a focus on differences leads to dissolution and abandonment. Even as this mentality and practice seek solidarity with its own, it is an exercise doomed to greater acts of differentiation.

Oneness, on the other hand, was established early on in the very foundations of mentality and practice. You can only be one or not one, you cannot have it both ways. God directs society from the cornerstone of its initial union. Matthew 19:5 “And said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh.” Mark 10:8 “And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.” Matthew 19:6 “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.”

What the man and wife have in common makes them one. They are one mind and one flesh. That is to say, they are one body consisting of two members. They are separate and unique from other bodies, therefore, of incompatible constitutions. As flesh, they are not interchangeable. Each is sanctified to its own constitution. 1 Corinthians 15:39-41 “All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.”

The man and wife, the family unit, has a glory all its own. Mix-and-match is dilution, a loss of glory, an abandonment of oneness. Seeking differences rather than sameness poses a real danger to oneness. Beef mixed with fish is neither beef nor fish. Pure water mixed with ink is no longer pure. In a very real sense, you are known by the company you keep. You simply cannot stand with a foot on both sides of the stream; you will actually be either in the one camp or the other, whichever you are joined to. 1 Corinthians 6:16 “What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh.”

When we think of one, we think of the whole, the lump sum. In terms of all-or-nothing, a scattered flock is no flock at all. In terms of holding our own together, we like to keep all the little parts of us close at hand and under one rule: unanimity. The problem is this: how do we preserve our own uniqueness without focusing on differences? Even God sets parameters. God accepts his own and rejects sinners, but God does not push sinners away. Rather, God makes an open call as he gathers his own. There is a wonderful clause in God's covenant with man, it is the “whosoever will” clause. Anyone who wants to may be one with God – unless they actually want to not be one with God. Sinners push themselves away. Sinners choose oneness with some other.

God gathers his own, not someone else's. In the following verses, we see oneness maintained. As a husband gathers to himself only his wife, and as a wife gathers only her husband to herself, so we see the true nature of oneness in practice. It is not the focus on differences, but what actually belongs. It is not a labor of divisions, but a labor of integration. The man who seeks his lost sheep does not seek another man's sheep. The woman who sweeps her house seeks only that which belongs to her. Luke 15:4 “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” Luke 15:8 “Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?”