The Beliefs of John Robert Stevens

John Robert Stevens believed strongly in the unity of the world-wide Body of Christ. The Scriptures are clear that every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a member of His Body. Stevens saw the various facets of the Body of Christ as tributaries that should all flow into one stream. He believed that the Lord would teach His people how to relate to others who follow a different path in their walk with God:

[The Body of Christ] does not come together by an ecumenical movement, by the consent of men or by their conventions; it comes together by the Holy Spirit of fire welding us into one, until we are not an organization, but a living organism, one Body fitly joined together and compacted by that which the Spirit supplies. It is the Holy Spirit who produces this unity.¹

Unity must be divinely created. Without that, it is impossible for humans to attain a true oneness as the Body of Christ. It will come just as Jesus spoke it in John 17:22, “And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one.” The return of God’s glory and power upon His Body will make it one.

Stevens warned against confusing the unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–3) with the unity of the faith (Ephesians 4:13). He taught that we will only come into the unity of the faith—all Christians completely agreeing with one another on the issues of beliefs—when the foundational ministries have ministered to the Body of Christ and brought them into maturity (Ephesians 4:11–13). However, the only way for this to occur is in the unity of the Spirit, and therefore we must be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The term Body of Christ appears 730 times in Stevens’ written materials.