ZA MAGAZINE // seek truth.

Unity is important. This is a statement as logical as it is Scriptural. Obviously, if you want to spread a message to every tribe and tongue, you have to have a coordinated, organized, and unified movement. And since Christianity is all about love, it’s only natural that we would want to love on each other and do what we could to avoid conflict. However, what Christians fail to understand is the importance placed on being unified. Jesus, in his prayer for his people that he prays just before his arrest, says the following:

John 17:20-21
20 I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

So this isn’t arbitrary. Jesus wants everyone who believes in Him to be one. And, much like Jesus, we can and should pray for unity. The power of prayer is enormous, and God can do things for us that we could never do on our own. However, like many other elements of Christianity, we cannot be content to merely learn and pray.

James 1:22-25
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

If you pray for a job but never network with anyone, make any phone calls, or e-mail any résumés, then you probably won’t get a job. We can pray that the whole world gets saved, but if we never leave the prayer room, then people will die without hearing the Gospel. We must trust in God and seek his direction, but then we have to go. Unity is the same way. It is something we must pursue.

“But wait a minute, Brendan!” the veteran ZA reader might ask. “Didn’t you write an article which essentially said that we shouldn’t strive for unity itself, that unity would naturally happen if we pursued a common goal?” I did say that, and I think that it’s good in theory. However, things are rarely that simple. I recently went on a mission trip to Nicaragua with 17 people, and while we had a common goal, and while some people were willing to capitulate for the sake of the goal, it often left some ill will at the end of the night. Indeed, some disunity on the trip happened because one did not believe that another had the common goal at the center of his interests that week, but far more happened because people are people, and they get mad at each other.

This made me realize that a big barrier to unity is that people don’t know what to expect. We read a passage like Acts 2:42-47 (people are super unified here, read it if you’d like), and assume that Christians are always supposed to be like that. But Scripture shows that things weren’t always like that:

Philippians 4:2-3
2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.
3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

What we see here are two women with weird names (Euodia is clearly hogging the vowels) who are in disunity. It happened back then, too! And it’s not like they were heretics, either. These women did good work with Paul in the past. But now there is trouble, and Paul’s appeal is that they might be unified.

Conflict is almost certainly unavoidable, but we often don’t know what it’s like to be in close quarters with people that maybe see things differently than us. We don’t know what to do when conflict arises.

If you’re in this boat, then there are a few Scriptures that will really be an encouragement to you.

Ephesians 4:1-3
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

This passage goes on to talk about how there is one body and one Spirit, one God, etc., and we’ll use this passage to emphasize the need to unify. However, there are a few specifics that I really want you to catch.

Bearing with one another in love

I’m sure you’ve been told to be humble and gentle and patient before, but when was the last time you were exhorted by a Christian to bear with someone? I looked up that word in the Greek, and Strong’s Dictionary defines it as such: “to hold oneself up against, i.e. (figuratively) put up with.” Wow! Who is ever told to put up with your fellow Christians? Could Paul really be saying that there will be times when we don’t want to be with people, where we’ll only be putting up with them? My answer: absolutely yes.

This is important, because if we go into a church knowing that we just won’t get along with some people but we’re commanded to bear with them anyways, this prepares us to be unified with them. If we expect perfect harmony at all times, we’re going to be crushed and disillusioned when people start to bicker. If we’re not commanded to bear with one another, then we’ll pull out the passage that talks about Paul and Silas going their separate ways and conclude that we need to leave our church to find a place that is more compatible with our views. Yes, there are times when we have to create some space from those who oppose our views, but this should be treated as a rare last resort, because it usually isn’t necessary.

This is the revelation of my mission trip. On our campus, there are multiple campus ministries, so if you disagree with the views of one, you can just bail to another one. If you don’t get along with someone, the campus is big enough that you can mostly avoid them. Christians are bad at bearing with one another in love because WE NEVER HAVE TO! There are thousands of churches, thousands of communities, and millions of Christians, so sheer odds tell us that we can find a place where we never have to bear with anyone. But on our mission trip, we didn’t have that option. We lived together, ate together, worshiped together, and ministered together, and there was little room to hide. And things occasionally got ugly, because we weren’t ready for it and we didn’t know how to deal with it.

Please get this! be ready to bear with those whom you don’t always want to love. Paul says in verse 1 that walking in these things is walking in a manner deserving of Christ’s calling. Realize that we need to stay together in pursuit of the common goal, though, and we’ll be more equipped to be doers of the Word.

Eager to maintain the unity

Eagerness means that we really want unity to happen. So, when conflict arises, both sides of the party should want to have a peaceful resolution. This is where the humility and gentleness and patience kick in. If all five of these attributes mentioned in verses two and three come into play, then most conflict will be avoided, and conflict that arises will usually be resolved.

Bearing with and eager to maintain are the two main concepts that I want you to understand. There are other concepts, though. Philippians 4:4-7 can be very insightful if you connect those verses to verses 2 and 3, which I quoted earlier. Read it for yourself for more details, but if we can 1) rejoice in the Lord always, 2) let everyone know that we’re reasonable people who can accept correction and rebuke, 3) remember that the Lord is coming back soon, 4) avoid anxiety by trusting God, and 5) ask for the peace of God to come and guard our hearts, then we’ll be in a good place when it comes to unity.

Eagerly desire unity, and be ready for challenges to arise!

Grace and peace,
Brendan

Photo accompanying article was taken by Flickr user chriss. The original photo can be found here, and was distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license.