Word Study: One, Oneness, and One Accord


	Word Study: One, Oneness, and One Accord Introduction The matter of oneness and one accord with God's people is a crucial aspect of God's economy. The Old Testament begins by presenting us with the one unique God, "In the beginning God (Elohim)" (Gen. 1:1). As the crowning work of His creation, He created man (adam) as a unique corporate vessel to contain the unique life and nature of God (Gen. 1:26-27) for God's testimony and enlargement. At the culmination of the Scriptures, we are presented with God's ultimate expression in humanity, which is God's enlargement, the New Jerusalem. This will be a unique, corporate, living person, the Bride of Christ (Rev. 21:2). Complementary with the one unique God, throughout the Scriptures is the one people of God, His one unique testimony on earth. In the Old Testament it is the one people of Israel, and in the New Testament it is the one Body of Christ expressed as one church in localities throughout the earth. When the church is one, God can carry out His economy and can be expressed in His people. With the oneness there is the blessing on God's people, typified by the ointment upon the head of Aaron which runs down to the hem of his garment. It is here that God commands the blessing of divine life (Psa. 133). Babylon (Gen. 11:9; Dan. 1:1-2; Rev. 14:8; 17:5; 18:2) expresses the work of Satan to nullify the unique expression of the one God and produce an anti-testimony through the multiplicity of divisions upon the earth. One and Oneness Oneness (G. henotes, L. unitas) is from one (G. hen). In the New Testament, the word for oneness is found in two places: Ephesians 4:3, "Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace," and Ephesians 4:13, "Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith…." Witness Lee (Life-Study of Ephesians, 36:306-307) distinguishes oneness from unity and also defines oneness when he says, Oneness, strictly speaking, differs from unity. Unity is formed by many people uniting together, whereas oneness is the one entity of the Spirit within the believers making them all one. Our oneness is a Person, even the Lord Jesus Himself realized as the life-giving Spirit. Today the Lord is the life-giving Spirit within us, and this Spirit is our oneness. Therefore, our oneness is not an objective Person far away in the heavens; it is a subjective Person indwelling us as our life. In Ephesians 4:3 this oneness is called "the oneness of the Spirit." The oneness of the Spirit is actually the Spirit Himself. In the illustration of the electricity and the lights, the oneness of electricity is electricity itself. There is not another element, apart from electricity, that is the oneness of the electricity. The oneness of the electricity is simply the electricity itself. In the same principle, the oneness of the Spirit is not something apart from the Spirit. On the contrary, it is the Spirit Himself. The oneness within us and among us is the very life-giving Spirit. Furthermore, anything that has God and contains the Spirit automatically has the oneness. This is why Witness Lee says, "Oneness is an attribute of the church," as is seen in Ephesians 4:4 (The Oneness, 18). In Ephesians 4, the aspects of oneness spoken of in the two verses, 3 and 13, are compared by Lee (L-S Eph., 43:366-367): The oneness of the Spirit in verse 3 is the oneness of the divine life in reality, whereas the oneness in verse 13 is the oneness of our living in practicality. We already have the oneness of the divine life in reality. We only need to keep it. But we need to go on until we arrive at the oneness of our living in practicality ….This means that the oneness of reality must become the oneness in practice. Along with the exhortation to oneness in Ephesians 4:3 and 13, Paul gives the base or foundation of the oneness (4:4-6): one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father. The Body is mentioned first because the oneness is related to the one Body and is for the maintenance of the one Body. The Triune God is the base and foundation of our oneness. Lee further comments, "Our oneness is the Triune God realized and experienced by us in our Christian life….May we all have the heart to care for this oneness" (L-S Eph., 37:319-320). According to the Lord's prayer in John 17, we can see how the Lord desired His believers to be one. The real content of this prayer is oneness. Lee notes, "The oneness of the believers originates from the Father Himself (the Person), who is the source of life" (The Oneness, 12). This is the life that we believers possess. The Father's life is the element of our oneness. This is seen in the following hymn (Hymns, #1081): Father God, Thou art the source of life. We, Thy sons, are Thine expression; In Thy name, our dear possession. Father God, Thou art the source of life. In Thy life, in Thy life, We have oneness in Thy life. In Thy life, in Thy life, In Thy life, O Father, we are one. One Accord The Greek word for "one accord" is homothymadon, a compound word of homo, together, common, and thymos, rage, anger, fury, intense feeling. (Thymos is derived from thyo, to kill, slaughter, sacrifice. Thyo is also the source for thysia, a sacrifice, offering, the act of offering.) Except for Romans 15:6, homothymadon is found only in Acts (1:14; 2:1 in AV; 2:46; 4:24; 5:12; 7:57; 8:6; 12:20; 15:25; 18:12; 19:29). Heidland (5:185) says of homothymadon, "This word denotes the inner unity of a group of people engaged in an externally similar action." He says that it can be translated as "with the same emotion," "with the same mind," "unanimously." Lee (The Oneness, 10) agrees, "The term one accord speaks of something related to our mind." Heidland (5:186) concludes by pointing out the source and object of one accord, "Unanimity is thus a gift of God to the praise and purpose of God." The church and its believers in Acts had "one accord" in prayer (1:14; 4:24; Rom. 15:6), in the same place (2:1), in breaking of bread from house to house (2:46), to hear the gospel preached (8:6), and in the apostles' and elders' decision (15:25). The word is also used to describe how the enemies of the church were unanimous in showing their hatred and rejection of Christ (7:57; 9:29; 18:12). Schmitz (3:909) traces the source for the church's one accord as due to a "living and working in harmony with its origin," God. He further says (op. cit.) that the one accord is "an expression of its (the church's) nature," which is divine (2Pet. 1:4). In 1Corinthians, Paul stressed the keeping of the oneness of the Spirit by pointing the Christians back to Christ as the preeminent One Who alone was their centrality. The eyes of the Corinthians had gotten off of Christ and were focused on the apostles Paul, Apollos, and Cephas (1Cor. 1:13; 3:5-6, 22). The believers belonged to Christ and not to the apostles (3:23). On the other hand, all the apostles were theirs (3:21-22). This was a key factor for the keeping of the oneness. Lee (The Oneness, 16) stresses, "If we take Christ as our center and everything, what we speak, think, and understand will all be Christ. This is the one accord which is the practice of oneness." In the book of Philippians (2:2) we read, "Think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking the one thing." Commenting on this verse Lee says, This refers to the subjective knowledge and experience of Christ. Only Christ is the centrality and universality of our whole being….We should focus our thoughts on the precious knowledge and experience of Christ. -James D. Reetzke Bibliography Heidland, H. W. homo-thymadon. In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by Gerhard Kittel; translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Vol. 5. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1967. Hymns. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1985. Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Ephesians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984. Lee, Witness. The Oneness and the One Accord according to the Lord's Aspiration and the Body Life and Service according to His Pleasure. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1990. Schmitz, E. D. Unanimity (homothymadon). In Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Edited by Colin Brown. Vol. 3. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1978.