“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” (Psa. 133:1)

God desires unity in the body of Christ. Unfortunately, too often in the church, we find selfish motives and desires driving dissension and rifts. When people lose sight of the ultimate purpose of church, which is to love God and bring glory to Him, and to love others and draw others to Christ unto salvation, then disunity occurs.

It’s okay to have differences in opinion and differences in the way we may want to achieve the same goal, but when we put more emphasis on the method (“Do it MY way!”) than on the purpose itself, we are letting our flesh get in the way. Pride, selfishness, and the inability to humble ourselves before others… these are all sins that destroy a fellowship of believers.

In Psalm 133, the Lord compares unity in the church to precious oil being poured upon Aaron, completely covering and saturating him from head to toe. This full covering represents Aaron’s complete consecration to holy service, and likewise the unified effort of the entire church body sanctifies God’s people and prepares them for service as one.

The Lord also compares unity to the dew of Hermon covering Mount Zion. The dew provided rich sustenance to the earth in that area. Similarly, God uses unity to provide sustenance and blessings to the church to make us fruitful and effective in serving Him and bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

In the church, we must set aside our differences to carry out His ultimate purpose, and be unified upon that purpose. When we all humbly commit to loving others and putting others before ourselves, then unity will abound!

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” (1 Pet. 3:8)

“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Col. 3:14)

[From November 22, 2018]