We have probably
all heard the phrase “United we stand, divided we fall.” It is the moral of one
of Aesop’s fables, The Four Oxen and the
Lion. His story goes like this: “A Lion used to prowl about a field in which
Four Oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he
came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he
approached them he was met by the horns of one of them. At last, however, they
fell a-quarrelling among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in a
separate corner of the field. Then the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made
an end of all four.”
Ecclesiastes
4:9-12 says, “Two are better than one; because they have a
good reward for their labour. For if
they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when
he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have
heat: but how can one be warm alone? And
if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is
not quickly broken.”
Jesus taught the
same principle in Matthew 12:25. He
said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to
desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand”. Matthew Henry said, “If we divide one from
another, we become an easy prey to a common enemy…Churches and nations have
known this by sad experience.”
The truth is we
need one another. God made us to be part
of a whole – not to try to single-handedly be the whole. We need the input of others into our thoughts
to keep us balanced. We need
encouragement to keep us from falling into despair. We need correction to keep us on the right
path.
In
the first letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth, he was calling them
to unity. They had been privileged to
have the teaching of many of the great apostles of that day and they had grown
in spiritual gifts. But their focus had
turned from Jesus, to the ministers that brought them His message.
Genesis
49:10 is a prophetic scripture about Jesus, the Messiah. It says, “The sceptre
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” Rather than gathering to Jesus, the
Corinthians were gathering to Paul or Peter or Apollos. Paul asked, “is Jesus divided?” Of course
that was a rhetorical question jarring them back into reality. Certainly Christ is not divided.
Finally,
in 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul said, “But I urge and entreat you, brethren, by the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in perfect harmony and full
agreement in what you say, and that there be no dissensions or factions or divisions
among you, but that you be perfectly united in your common understanding and in
your opinions and
judgments.” (Amplified Bible) Perfect harmony? Perfectly united? Full agreement? How does that work? A thousand different opinions, backgrounds,
personality types, abilities, temperaments…and we are to live in full
agreement? How on this earth can that be
possible? It’s even hard to get two
people to agree on everything.
My husband is a morning person – I am a night owl. He thrives on competition – competition
stresses me out! He doesn’t particularly
like to read – I am an avid reader. And
the list goes on. So how have we
made if for over 27 years? We agree on
the things that matter and give room in things that don’t.
Thomas
Jefferson said, “In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of
taste swim with the current.” Some
things matter. Some things don’t. The teachings of Jesus matter. The Word of God matters. Following the Spirit of God matters. Preferences and personalities don’t. We don’t all have to have the same favorite
color. Our ideas about music, cars,
housekeeping and food may vary widely.
And that’s okay.
In
Romans 14, Paul speaks of some things that don’t matter. (vvs.1-3, 5-6) “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye,
but not to doubtful disputations.” [That means not to criticize him for his
weakness; not to split hairs over what doesn’t matter.] “For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak,
eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth
despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not, judge him that
eateth: for God hath received him…One man esteemeth one day above another:
another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own
mind. He that regardeth the day,
regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he
doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God
thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God
thanks.”
What
is the important part here? Doing it
unto the Lord! If you can’t do it unto
the Lord, then don’t do it! Satan
delights in causing us to spend so much time fighting over what doesn’t matter
that we fail to be and do what does matter.
Down through the
years there has been much talk about unity.
And for all the talk, there is very little unity because we are trying
to be alike and are uniting with the wrong things. Unity does not mean all being the same…being clones
of one another. We all have different
gifts and abilities to offer. Unity is
combining what we have to become one. It is gathering unto Jesus and doing
whatever you do unto Him. Unity is using what we have and who we are
for the same purpose within the parameters of God’s Kingdom.
If I said, “Let’s have a picnic”, some would be
getting the picnic tables ready, putting on the tablecloths and getting the
tents up for a little shade. Others
would be planning a trip to the mountains, hiking 15 miles through the
wilderness and spreading out a cloth on the edge of a cliff so they could eat
with the bears. One is not right and the
other wrong. They are just different. But they both accomplish the same purpose – A
PICNIC! That’s a very simplistic
example, but it gives us a picture of what unity is and what it isn’t. The pieces in a puzzle are not all alike, but
they all belong there. If they were all
alike, there would be no picture. It
would just be blank.
There is strength in unity, but we need to be cautious
as to what or with whom we become united.
After all, if you put in pieces that are for a different puzzle, it will
distort God’s picture. Before we become
united, we need to know what we are connecting to. There are some purposes we cannot work toward
because the purpose is wrong.
2 Corinthians
6:14-17 says: “Be ye not unequally yoked
together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And
what concord [harmony] hath Christ with Belial [the devil]? or what part hath
he that believeth with an infidel [unbeliever]? And what
agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the
living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I
will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”
As
the temples of God, we cannot connect ourselves to unrighteousness, unbelief,
darkness or idols. They don’t mix with
the righteousness, light, faith and the Spirit of God dwelling in the children
of God. If we are to be followers of
Christ, we cannot be joined to those things.
They lead us away from “the way, the truth and the life”. They lead us away from the right
purpose. Those puzzle pieces do not
belong in God’s picture.
So,
what are we to unite with? What is the
central element of true unity? We
already know the answer to that – it is gathering together unto Jesus. Ephesians 4:1-4 tells us the way to do
it.
“I
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
The
first step toward unity is to walk worthy of the divine calling of God in our
lives. If we are Christians, we are to
be followers of Jesus, not just giving Him mental assent. Too many people want
to live for Jesus their way. It doesn’t work.
If we are the same as we were before we were saved, we are not
saved. If we are still leading, we are
not His follower. We are called to live
out our belief in Him, pursue after Him above everything else, follow the
teachings of Jesus, stop doing things we cannot do unto Him and be filled with
His Spirit. That’s when we are walking
worthy of Him.
The
second step is knowing how to interact with one another. Our relationships with others should be marked
by the heart of a loving servant. We are
to walk in humility and meekness. Not being a doormat, but giving value to
others and serving one another. We are
to walk in love toward one another, realizing we all have weaknesses and making
allowances as we help each other to grow and be strengthened in the faith.
Thirdly,
we are not just to hope unity happens.
The word ‘endeavor’ means to put forth effort to preserve it. We are to do everything we can within the
boundaries of God’s Word to keep the unity of the Spirit, not the unity of this
faction or that faction. We are each to
be in harmony with and at one with God.
The bond of peace with God is the key to our unity with one
another. Without it there can be no
unity. The bond of peace is each individual
becoming one with God, being bound or connected to Jesus as one with Him. When we are united with God individually,
then we are automatically united with one another corporately.
In John 17:20-23
Jesus was praying for His disciples and for us, those who are followers of Him
because of the word of His first disciples.
Jesus prayed, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be
one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have
given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be
made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and
hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
Jesus
is one with the Father and came to show us the Father. Now we are to show the world Jesus! Here again we see that when we are one
with God, we are one with all those who are one with Him. And this unity, this oneness, transcends time
and place. When we become one with
Jesus, we become one with His first disciples.
We are building on what they started…working for the same purpose by the
same power of the same Spirit and in keeping the same teachings of Jesus. We are perpetuating the Kingdom of God. We
also become one with those who will come after us as they build on what we
leave for them. We are one with those in
our local fellowship and those on the other side of the globe. How can we be one with those we have never
met, who we have been separated from by time and space? Because we are one with the One we have met and we are working toward His
purpose wherever we are. Those who came
before us paved the way for us to be one with God. Now we pave the way for those who follow
after us. We are part of a much bigger
picture. What an astounding thought! We are all part of the body of Christ. We will live eternally in union with Christ
and His true Church – all those who have been born again throughout every
era. We are part of something much
bigger than ourselves.
Think of the way
God has designed the family. The
siblings in that family all live under the oversight of the same mother and
father. They have the same rules, the
same love, the same guidance, the same correction. They might not always agree
with one another. They may not always see things the same way. They all have different personalities and
ideas, but they will lay all that down to defend one another because they love
one another. Why is that bond so
strong? Because they are all a part of
the same unit. And that’s exactly who we
are as the body of Christ.
We are called
into the family of God to protect, defend, encourage and watch over one another. Hebrews 10:24-25 says “And
let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying
[that means we pay attention, we look at them carefully] how we may stir up
(stimulate and incite) to love and helpful deeds and noble activities, Not forsaking or neglecting to
assemble together [as believers], as is the habit of some people, but
admonishing (warning, urging, and encouraging) one another, and all the more
faithfully as you see the day approaching.” (Amplified Bible)
Unity
is defined in Webster’s New World Dictionary as “a harmonious, unified
arrangement of parts in an artistic work; continuity of purpose.” Only Jesus can accomplish that with billions
of people down through time. Only our
oneness with Jesus can consolidate our unity with one another. “For we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) We are God’s
workmanship. He is the one that brings
everything together as an “artistic work”, complete in Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians
12:18 says, “But now hath God
set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.”
We are all
different, but working toward the same purpose!
