I. Unity is God’s will for us.
A. Definitions.
1. Unity: The state of being formed into a single complete whole. A quality of wholeness where all parts of something function perfectly together..
2. Psalm 133:1&2
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.
a. Unity: Hbr, yachad: togetherness, implies many parts being joined together to make a single unified whole.
b. Here we see the Holy Spirit use the analogy of the body, in this case Aaron, to symbolize the church, the body of Christ.
c. Together under our head, Jesus the Great High Priest, the same anointing that Father poured out on Jesus flows to us.
d. When we are living together as many parts being one in Christ, the Spirit flows from even the lowest believer and touches the earth.
3. Eph 4:1-6
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
a. Unity: Gr henotes, oneness, agreement
b. We’ll look at this passage more closely in a few minutes.
B. Benefits of unity.
1. The Anointing of the Spirit
a. Psalm 133:2&3 The anointing flows, the blessing is given.
b. The empowering of the Spirit, life in our gatherings, in our works.
c. Without unity we end up striving with no power.
d. When believers are not empowered by the Spirit, they default to the flesh.
2. A bold witness.
a. John 17:23 “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
b. ‘perfect in one’ means complete.
c. As individuals we do not have the complete fullness of Christ, when we remain joined together by the Spirit, we are complete in Him.
d. Without unity, a compromised and ineffective witness, a fractured representation of Christ.
3. Power in prayer.
a. Matt 18:19&20
19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
b. If we hold onto offense, we forfeit spiritual power.
c. Doesn’t matter how much we fast, pray in tongues, etc. if we are divided by offense.
4. Ability to accomplish great things.
a. Gen 11:6
“And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.”
b. 2 Chron 30:12 God gave them one heart and they joined themselves together.
C. Unity is a gift of God’s grace.
1. Our unity as the body of Christ is a divine gift of God’s grace where God has joined us together and made us one.
a. Unity is not something that we made, we came up with, etc.
b. It is a state of being that God has given us and He now expects us to maintain it.
2. Eph 4:1-5 Endeavoring to keep or maintain unity is how we walk worthy of our calling, It will require:
a. humility
b. gentleness
c. long-suffering
d. bearing with one another in love, (putting up with each other’s brokenness and immaturity in love)
3. In vs 4-6 Paul compares the unity of the body of Christ to the unity in God’s kingdom.
a. One Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God & Father of all
b. The Father is above all and in all, i.e., use all have the One True God within us, and the is the basis for our unity— God is not divided, and He is in us, so we are not divided.
c. There is no division in God’s kingdom, so don’t let there be any division in you.
II. Two analogies.
A. The body: many parts joined together to make one.
1. We have already seen that Aaron represented the body of Christ with Jesus as the head in Psalm 133. Several other scriptures use this analogy to describe our unity in Christ.
a. Rom 12:4&5 One body, many members
b. 1 Cor 12:27 “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members in it.”
c. Eph 4:16 “…whole body, joined and geld together…”
d. Col 1:18 “He is the head of the body, the church…”
2. Just as God has joined the different parts of our physical body together in the womb to make one body, He has joined us together in the Spirit to make one body of Christ.
a. Job 10:28 “Your hands have made me and fashioned me in an intricate unity…”
b. Many biological systems (circulatory, respiratory, digestive, etc.) many organs, many bones, but one body.
3. One of the things we learn from this is that unity is not sameness, it is togetherness. We don’t all have the same function, but we are all together.
4. If there is disunity in our body, we suffer. It is the same in the body of Christ. Division causes pain and dysfunction. The divine order of a functioning body begins to break down.
B. The family: the smallest cells of the body of Christ.
1. When speaking about marriage, Jesus said “What God has joined together, let no man
separate.” (Mark 10:9)
2. The Lord makes exceptions for abuse, adultery and for unbelieving spouses who want to leave the marriage (which is more common than we might realize). But on the whole, when 0we seek God’s will and blessing for marriage and allow God to join us together, the two become one.
3. Husband and wife are joined together by the Spirit, just as our physical bodies are joined together. And then God adds children.
4. Just as individual atoms are joined by a chemical reaction and become a molecule, a husband and wife are joined by the Spirit. The children are joined and the molecule grows.
5. Together they are joined to other believers and find their place and function in the body of Christ.
6. This is a work of the Spirit.
a. 1 Cor 12:18 “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.”
7. You do not have to tolerate insecurity about your place in the body of Christ. You do not have to entertain thoughts that you don’t belong or that your gift isn’t special, etc. The Spirit of God has knit you into the body exactly where you fit, just as he did when He knit you together in the womb.
III. Unity begins in the mind.
A. The body has many systems but one mind.
1. 1 Cor 1:10
“Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
2. The word ‘unity’ is not used here, but Paul defines it for us.
a. ‘all speak the same thing’: we all have a common testimony, we are in agreement on the essential doctrines of the faith
b. ‘there be no divisions among you’: meaning fractured, something that has been split apart
c. ‘perfectly joined together’: to fit together, to put in order, to mend what was fractured and repair it to good condition
d. ‘in the same mind and judgement’: faculty of mind, sense of purpose, it also means the sense of self
3. 1 Peter 3:8&9
8 Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; 9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
1. The Greek word for divisions is schisma and it means fractured. It comes from the root word skizo, where we get the word ‘shizophrenia’. This means a split mind, a torn mind, ripped in pieces.
2. If we tolerate division and discord in the body of Christ, we risk having a split mind as the body of Christ.
3. Schizophrenia, a split mind, is marked by:
a. disordered thinking: pulled in so many directions that you can’t move forward
b. hallucinations, often auditory: inability to distinguish God’s voice from others
c. delusions: firmly held false beliefs, a false view of reality
4. Individuals can suffer from this, but what about the body of Christ? If we neglect the Word of the Lord that commands us to be of the same mind, we risk having split mind in the Body of Christ and suffer the same outcomes.
a. Not thinking the same thing, so we can’t move forward.
b. Unable to distinguish God’s voice from other voices.
c. Not holding to the doctrine of the Word, opinionated, etc.
5. Even more important, just as a person with a fractured mind will not have a united sense of self, if the body of Christ will not be of the same mind, we will not grasps our true identity as the fullness of God in Jesus Christ.
a. So many believers struggle with their identity in Christ on the individual level and it makes them easy prey for the enemy, they are unsure of their authority in Christ.
b. Now apply that same concept to the corporate body of Christ. If we have a fractured sense of self, it makes us easy prey and limits our authority.
IV. So God has joined us together and placed us where we belong, how then can we maintain this unity and stay healthy as His body?
A. Understand that unity is one of our primary works.
1. Western Culture is individualistic in nature. It celebrates the lone survivor, the triumph of the individual, self-determination, self-help, etc.
a. This is not all bad when it’s applied the right way, like self-discipline, taking responsibility, being accountable, etc.
b. In our fallen nature, we typically follow this culture when it suits us and reject it when it doesn’t. I.e., we want self-determination without accountability.
2. We have to realize that we have been born again and in the womb of the Spirit we have been knit together into the body of Christ. We do not live for ourselves any longer.
a. Individual holiness and obedience benefits the whole body.
b. Individual sin hinders the whole body. (Achan)
3. Endeavoring to maintain unity is now one of our first works. We tend to focus on our individual gifting, goals, dreams, etc., but we are all responsible to maintain unity.
B. Learn to speak the truth (and listen to it) in love.
1. Our ability to say what needs to be said in love is directly tied to our unity.
2. Eph 4:11-16
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
a. All of these ministries require speech, words, etc.
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
3. Seven times in this passage the analogy of a body is used. Seven represents completion, perfection.
4. If the body is going to be complete, we will have to learn to speak the truth in love.
a. Many of us have no problem speaking the truth without love.
b. We often feel prideful about speaking up and saying what we think is true.
c. We think we are courageous or bold, etc.
5. Speaking the truth in love is required to make a perfect body. It goes each way… “by what every joint supplies…” each part must learn to speak the truth in love.
6. Content vs packaging.
C. Never allow yourself to be divided by offense.
1. We can separate over sin, over deception, over idolatry, but we are to allow an offense to bring division.
a. Eph 5:11 “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness…”
b. 2 Tim 3:5 “…from such people turn away.”
2. Luke 17:3&4
3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins [c]against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
D. Never allow yourself to be divided by ambition.
1. James 3:14-18
14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
2. When any part of our physical body does its own thing regardless of how that affects the rest of the body, we get disease.
3. We have a common saying in the US, “I have to do whats best for me.” In the body of Christ, we have to do what’s best for the body.
V. Closing.
A. Unity is a gift from God to us, let’s not take it for granted.
1. God has joined us together in the womb of the Spirit. He has placed us where we belong.
2. It is now up to each of us to maintain that unity and serve the body from our place.
3. Understand where God has placed you and work for unity to be established and maintained in that place. In the home, in your church and small groups, etc.
B. Unity begins in the mind.
1. We see how many Sunday mornings the worship songs, the 5 minute speaker and the message all fit together and say the same thing in different ways.
2. Stay in the Word and in the Spirit to maintain our unity.
C. Four points to remember.
1. Unity is one of our primary jobs. It takes all of guys working to maintain it.
2. Learn to speak the truth and to receive it in love.
3. Never allow yourself to be divided by offense.
4. Never allow yourself to be divided by ambition.
D. Closing scripture.
1. 2 Cor 13:11
“Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”