You can tell when you walk into a church, and spend any amount of time there, whether that church is united or not. What is Christian unity? We know it when we see it. We can feel it.
You can feel the peace around the table. You can sense the peace and unity in the service, the bible studies, the business meetings, and so on.
There is general unity. The believers there love Jesus, they are humble, and they enjoy the peace of unity. They don’t allow their egos to break it.
Similarly, we can tell very quickly when there is disharmony, disunity. You can sense the hostility. You can sense the annoyances and anger. You can see the pride and ego in the eyes of the people there who want their way. There is faction, rebelliousness, and it’s toxic.
For Christians to be united in any way is a testimony to the world that Jesus is real. I recall being in Escanaba, and there was a unity of 14 churches that had all agreed to join forces to create a rotating homeless shelter. And I always remembered that, being at the meeting of those church leaders, and seeing their unity, to work together to help the homeless was a powerful witness of Christian unity.
Yet at the same time, there is also a boundary to unity. We as Christians cannot be united with false teachings, sometimes the suggestion of unity is used as a guise to implement false teachings.
A church may split, if half the church says we are going to go against what the Bible says. We are going to throw out God’s design for marriage, and change it. Well, in that case, the true church should split off from those false teachers, because we cannot have fellowship with darkness. We cannot have fellowship with lies. That is the line.
But Jesus longs for the fellowship, the unity of true believers. He prays for it famously in John 17.
John 17:1-5 says, “After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”
We have a perfect example from Jesus about what it means to walk in unity. On Earth, Jesus sought to do the perfect will of God the Father.
He was always focused on one thing: What is my Father’s will?
God gave Jesus work to do, and Jesus did that work successfully, joyously, and even when it was very hard and painful.
If our eyes are focused on God our Father in heaven, humbly seeking to do His will, we will walk in unity.
If we are self focused, and prideful, and rebellious, we will cause disunity among the believers.
So much of this, when we talk about unity, is going to be internal.
Next Jesus says, verses 6-8, “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.”
Jesus reveals the Father to us. Who is God? Jesus reveals the Father to us perfectly.
In unity we find our example in Jesus himself. How can I be a person of unity, a Christian of unity? By being an accurate example of Jesus to the world.
Jesus in His prayer here is talking about the disciples in a particular way, he says they obeyed the Father’s word.
It says they “accepted His word.”
They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
That is something I honestly believe about Jesus, that the Father really did send Jesus. I really believe that every word of the Bible is true. I accept His word as it is written.
Do you accept the word of God as written?
A hallmark of a person of unity is that they honestly accept God’s words as written.
But be on guard friends. It is very easy, so very easy to begin to twist God’s word to suit our desires.
We start to soften certain aspects. We start to ignore certain bible verses that make us uncomfortable. This is becoming increasingly common in modern Christianity. You see once prominent denominations that were so firmly embedded in truth, now going off into error. They change the word of God to suit their desires. The United Methodist church split. Even organizations like Cru and intervarsity are beginning to stray on certain key issues of our day.
