Division Bad...Unity Good

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 15:5-6

God has called us, as a church, to be unified so that we can glorify and honor the One who made it all. Who made your next breath, your next moment, your very life.

Unified. When I look around these days, I don't see unity. Rather I see division in abundance. Division in the very place that suffers the most from it. The church. The very body of people that God calls to be unified. Not just in churches, but in the smaller groups that represent church.

I can think of one example right now, and it saddens me because neither time nor growth has brought unity. In fact, the absolute opposite has occurred. Clique's have formed, people have broken away which is essentially destroying unity without those doing it even realizing that is what is happening.

The Bible (you know, that book we should ALL be reading) warns about division. Here are a few verses:

"I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people." Romans 16: 17-18

"But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." 1 Corinthians 12:24b-26

If one part suffers, all suffer. That is humbling because if one part is divided it will inevitably infect the rest of the body like the flu. I can't speak for everyone, but I know that I do not take joy in having the flu or think it is a very pleasant experience. Imagine that kind of infection, figuratively speaking, taking over an entire church because of one small break. One small crack that eventually turns into a big gaping hole big enough for satan to get in and wreak havoc in whatever way he wishes.

Division is disastrous in so many ways. It hurts people, it brings into question the very Truth that we build our faith upon and it can cause believers to turn from their faith. We, as a body of Christ, need to be very careful. People are watching us and when they see us destroying each other over theological debates and the color of the churches carpet and turning others against everyone else, they see the body of Christ as nothing but a group of hypocrites doing the very same things that they preach about not doing every Sunday.

Division is bad. Unity is good. Unity brings about community. Community is God's intended practice for His people. We falter, we fall, we hurt, we sin, we stumble, we trip. We are not perfect.

God is.

Through community with Christ and with each other we love, we hope, we succeed, we overcome, we persevere, we achieve.

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." 2 Corinthians 4:7-9

Through community, we walk this road together, united through the all-surpassing power of our Lord and Savior. The walk isn't always perfect, but we know we have help mate's to pick us up when we fall, encourage us through discouragement and cheer us on when it doesn't feel like there is anything to cheer about.

We do it together. Why on earth would we want to be divided from that?