Unity is not Conformity

I have heard, many times, that the "rules" of our church are too strict, too confining, too cookie-cutter. Some view the commandments and guidelines we're encouraged to follow as a means of making us all conform and thus, in some way, lose our personal identities. (Refer to my previous post "Commandments: Restricting? Or Liberating?" to learn more about the commandments.) That is not the intent or purpose of commandments though. They are given to us, from God, to teach us and guide us, so that we can be more unified with Him and with each other, while also allowing us to develop our own personality, traits, talents, abilities, etc . . . "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man" (Ephesians 4:13).

It is not commandments that breed conformity; it is the popular media and social networking that demand conformity. No wonder people struggle to find their own individual identity?! I submit that the solution is actually much easier than we may think: resist the pressure to conform, and find ways to be unified.

When we feel compelled to conform to any particular status quo in society, in school, at work, etc, it can definitely create feelings of restlessness and rebelliousness. There's a natural tendency for each of us to want to be unique, to feel like we're individually separate from anyone else. Why? Because we are! It goes against nature to make any one person be exactly like someone else when we are all innately and beautifully different! The moment we feel our individuality is being threatened we want to resist. Good! Go with that instinct. But don't confuse resisting conformity, with alienating yourself from those around you. We don't have to forfeit our individual worth, in order to be unified.

It is my belief that God did not intend for us to be exactly like anyone else. Consider the diversity of the Godhead. God is the Ruler and Creator. Jesus Christ is the Redeemer and Savior. The Holy Ghost is the Testifier and Comforter. God could easily do it all himself because He is God. But that's not how He operates. It really is brilliant (of course) how He has set this all up: we all need to be our individual selves, so that when unified in Christ we become a more effective whole. Each person has their own abilities and gifts that God has given them to be used for the benefit of serving and loving those around them.

Paul does a wonderful job of explaining how the individual members are necessary for the whole body to function:

"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ . . . For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, Because I am not the hand, I am not the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? . . . And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you . . . there should be no schism in the body; but that the member should have the same care one for another."

(1 Corinthians 12:12-25)

Paul is helping us understand that all the different members (i.e. all different kinds of people) are needed and wanted. Yet with all the unique people, the complete whole, or the whole body, is one. Not only are the differences and uniqueness recognized, it is a necessary component of making the whole body function. Example: The ear can't be an eye, nor does it want to be, because it would then cease to be an ear. All parts of the body need the other parts to work, and the same is true for us within our community, churches, neighborhoods, school, etc.

Ironically, we live in a world that is screaming at us to conform! Gender roles are becoming meshed, women want to be just like men, popular media sets the standards, heaven forbid we discuss religion, political correctness is the law . . . and the list is endless. We all say we want to be different, and then we all try to be different in the same ways because we see an ideal of something or someone else that we feel pressured to become.

Conformity is not unity! Unity is not conformity! Own the fact that we're all different, with different roles, gifts, and passions. Love who we are. Embrace those around us for who they are. Because we are each, individually, special. Paul tells us that there is not any member of the body that is not needed, there is not any part of the body that is less than or more important than any other. They should be, and can be, all a part of the whole, unified in working together.