6 Truths About Unity

I never intended to write a follow-up post on unity, but the more I read the Bible and dug a bit deeper, I realized there’s much more the Bible has to say on this topic.

First, unity is impossible when trying to please two different, competing authorities. In other words, I will struggle to be unified with someone who’s trying to please or obey a different authority.

I’m reminded of Matthew 6:24, where Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” For different people, different things will compete with God. Maybe that’s money. Maybe it’s a relationship, a career, or some other kind of pleasure or success. Regardless, no one can serve two masters.

Second Corinthians 6:14 warns us to not be unequally “yoked” with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? Those who are not Christians are not interested in serving or prioritizing God. They’re serving something else. We may be able to work together on some things, but when it comes to eternal things, we’re divided.

I was also reminded recently of Deuteronomy 22:10, where God commands the Israelites to not “plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.” Here there are two natures at work. The donkey is not like the ox, nor the ox like the donkey. They have different strengths and instincts that may pull them apart. They may make some progress, but long-term they won’t work effectively.

In every age, there’s always some authority (or authorities) that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. Whether in our age, Rome, or Babylon, there have always been those ready to applaud a stand against God’s knowledge, justice, power, and design. Today those stands include legitimizing killing the unborn and defending the myth of multiple genders, and those are just the most glaring examples.

As Christians, unity is impossible with those who campaign for such “progress.” We cannot serve two masters, whether that competing master is some ruling class or elite, a community on social media, or a mob. Unity cannot be compelled or demanded, and it goes deeper than surface loyalties. Unity is not about favorites but who or what has our devotion.

Second, unity is impossible when we villainize others. As Psalm 133:1 declares, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” Brothers.

We’re able to live together in unity because we see each other as brothers and sisters. We can do that because there’s an underlying commonality. We come from the same family. There’s a deeper, uniting bond. Yet when we villainize others—when we see as primary the secondary—our unity is hindered.

As Christians we have enemies—the world, the flesh, and the devil. There are those we should not be unified with. However, when it comes to our brothers and sisters, we may disagree on some points, but gossiping and demonizing them is unhelpful as well as unbiblical.

If we want unity, what may first need to change is how we view our brothers and sisters.

Third, unity and pride cannot coexist. Ephesians 4 seems to make this clear: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2-3). This passage goes on to talk about one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all. We’re back to that common authority.

What else? Be completely humble and gentle. Completely. Be patient. Bear with one another. In love. If you can’t seem to find unity, maybe you’re the problem.

Neither can pride and love coexist. Unity is about love and laying down my rights for the greater good. It’s about sacrificially loving my neighbor as myself and seeing what I want as secondary. Prideful people can be unified short-term, but pride is contrary to unity that lasts. Love and humility are needed. Look not each man to his own interests but also to the interests of others (Phil. 2:4).

In addition, unity is achieved when God’s people are being equipped and taught to build each other up. Unity is not achieved by ignoring differences. Unity is not uniformity. Later in Ephesians we see that Christ “gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers” to equip the church for service, so that we might be built up and reach unity.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about many members but one body. Different functions, different strengths, but one Lord, one Spirit, and one body. Unity is not an individual pursuit. It involves coming together, not sacrificing truth, but building each other up.

Next, unity is impossible without division. Okay, this may seem contradictory, but hang with me.

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul addresses some disobedience that had been going on regarding the Lord’s Supper. The church’s meetings were doing more harm than good (v. 17), and some were guilty of eating the bread and drinking the cup of the Lord “in an unworthy manner” (v. 27).

Paul then says something interesting: “I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it” (1 Cor. 11:18). He writes that there had to be some differences to show which of them had God’s approval (v. 19).

In other words, there is a hidden purpose of God in allowing such division: It allows Him to show His favor. Division, though not ideal, reveals who belongs to Him.

The whole world is not on one team, and friendship with the world is enmity toward God (Jas. 4:4). There are people all over the world with radically different ideas of how things should be run and how similar problems should be approached. If you stand with everybody, you stand with nobody.

This becomes especially true when standing with God. Being united with someone requires being united against something else. We are united with Christ against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Unity necessarily entails some kind of rejection. There is a separation, or division, that’s required to reveal what team you’re on.

For the people of God, He makes them one. In Ezekiel 37, God uses two sticks to explain how one day Israel and Judah will become one in His hand. He will “take them out of the nations where they have gone” and “gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.” He will make them one nation with one king and save them from their backsliding (Ezek. 37:18-24). He will make them one, and they will be one under Him.

Notice all of the “wills.” This brings me to the final point. Like peace, unity is a taste of what is to come.

Perfect unity in this world will never be a reality, but one day God will bring everything to perfect unity in Christ (Eph. 1:10). Any unity now will tragically be tainted by pride, self-interest, and greed. God’s unity will bring us together in a way nothing on earth could.