ing David wondered out loud how beautiful and wonderful it would be when brothers [sisters] work together in unity. Apostle Paul appealed to the believers in Ephesus to keep the unity of spirit and the bond of peace.
When two or more individuals come together in “unity” things happen, whether it is a marriage, business, community or faith institutions. One of the best and most important scheme of the enemy is to prevent unity, knowing that things would happen against his kingdom, when churches, couples, or communities work together to achieve God’s purpose. At the center of the scheme to prevent unity is the definition of unity itself. Many believe or think that unity means to bring everyone together and have them conform to stated objective with each person surrendering their uniqueness.
Apostle Paul describes unity a little differently (1 Corinthians 12), first he says every human being has being endowed with different gifts and uniqueness by God and the diversity of gifts is administered by the Holy Spirit, so the source of all gifts and diversity of uniqueness is God and His intent is for everyone, to bring their gifts and diversity to form a unit for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven (without losing their uniqueness).
Paul went on to explain that each individual or groups have been equipped uniquely and He [God] then brings (orchestrate) every part together to form a unit. Each part first recognize that God is the source, and secondly recognize that its role while unique and not more important that the other parts. Apostle Paul said some part might think they are dispensable because of their size or function, but he said every part play vital roles.
To fully understand this concept, I would ask everyone reading this article to look around them, from their church to their city and even people in their lives. About nine years ago, God brought my family to Omaha Nebraska, and He is using us (including the children) as parts to fill several units, from the church we attend to the ministry work we do in the city. My passion is different from my wife’s passion and it is definitely different from the people I work with in the city. Ola (my wife) is a compassionate person but I have very little patient with people who don’t get it, while I will do everything for a marriage not to fail, she’ll empty our bank account for a needy single mother. Ben Gray (Omaha Councilman) has a passion for the youth of the city, while Dick Davis (Omaha Businessman) wants to get everyone employed, as much as I love prayer-walking I don’t have the passion for it as much as Dave Gehrls (Prayer-walk Coach) and John Ewing Jr. (Douglas County Treasurer) while I appreciate what these friends do and support it, my passion and part is to get every African American families in Omaha be a two family home of mom and dad. Well someone has to coordinate complexities and God has given Willie Barney (Empower Omaha coordinator) that gift.
Any time God’s concept of unity (God is the source of all gifts, each part is diversely gifted and the unit is a grouping of unique parts) is replaced with conformity concepts (submitting your uniqueness for the benefit of the whole), either by as a couple, a church or community, then not much would be achieved and such unity (or conformity) do not usually last too long because of human nature.
The enemy (devil) knowing what Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian churches, use the same principle to cause disunity so we never archive our purpose to the full extent of God’s grace and goodness already made available to us through the cross. The enemy pushes (in the mind) different parts to think they are more important than the other part in the unit, instead of each part recognizing the unique function of the other parts. The eye is saying to the kidney, I’m more important than you, while the hand is saying to the finger, I can do without you. In real life, many husbands or wife think without them their home cannot function well because they are the primary income earner, ignoring the nurturing role of the wife as a home maker or stumping down a husband. In a church, the elders and pastors think they are more important than the children worker, front office staff or the janitor, rather than see things from a function or role standpoint. In a community setting, those in positions of authority (elected or appointed) often think they are better than those who appointed them once they get to power. Unfortunately, human nature don’t want to be looked down upon, so we all do stupid things or do not cooperate just to feel important in our own right.
What ensues when one part feel more important (rather than see roles) than the other is disunity, a wife/husband who feels walked on, would do things to sabotage the marriage or seek divorce, a church janitor might feel he/she does not have the “anointing” available to the pastor or other church leaders and someone without education, with certain skill or un-elected might feel they have nothing to contribute in a community.
It is important that we recognize the schemes that the enemy uses to cause disunity and to also know that his schemes would flourish in an atmosphere where our flesh (sin nature) cooperates. Pride is at the top of the enemy’s schemes, and an unholy life would be a close second. The devil knows that he cannot do anything directly to a Christian, so he encourages humans to do things that keep them away from God (because of His [God] nature – Psalms 24) such as pride and an unholy lifestyle (remember the story of Prophet Balaam and King Balak). I’ve discovered when a husband or wife think too highly of themselves or when someone in pastoral or political leadership think too highly of themselves, they are far away from God and they are left to their own intellect and know how.
As a Christian and someone whose role is to the body of Christ, I know that God instituted authority (men in the marriage institution, pastors in the church institution and president/governor/mayor etc in government institutions)and call on everyone else to respect instituted authority, never did the Bible say to worship the people in authority. In my opinion the line between respect or worship of a position, should be maintained by the person in authority (just like angels were quick to tell humans not to worship them when they visited in biblical accounts), pastors/ministers should recognize that our jobs is to point to the WAY and get out of the way, husbands (marriage institution) and those in political authority should understand that their leadership is to serve, and in turn bring glory to God.
To be unholy is to do things contrary to what God wants or says we should do, another word for it is disobedience. When we disobey God, we move away from Him (He doesn’t move), when we continually sin and do what we want rather than what He wants, we grieve His spirit that is supposed to guide us and we make ourselves vulnerable and open up to the enemy’s attack.
The key to unity is to follow the model of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12. It is important to note that what binds us together is the Holy Spirit (who distributes and manages diversity of gifts), not our skin color, not our denomination, not our financial or social status or any other man-made demarcation, we also need to know that conforming with someone who is not led by the Holy Spirit or heeding to the teaching of Christ is not unity of the spirit. We do have to work with unbelievers, but abandoning our Christian principles (especially clearly stated/written principles) for the sake of working together is not unity but conforming.
The unity Paul wrote about starts with every part believing/knowing that their diversity of gifts comes from God and are administered by the Holy Spirit, and like everything from God, our gifts are to bring glory to His name (not create our own “little” kingdom). We also know that it is God that orchestrates different parts coming together at different times and seasons, for example God brought Aaron and Moses together to bring the Israelites out of Egypt at the right time. In each of our lives we can see the hand of God (when we are obedient) as we move around geographically and in the many lives He has touched through us.
Apostle Paul spent a lot of time explaining to all of us as parts, the importance of not seeing our roles as more important than the other parts, even when it seems we are the visible one. I have one of those roles that is upfront, either when I teach at conferences or when I share my passion or part through different media outlets, I am however very aware that my role is no more important than the volunteer teachers in the children’s ministry (Awana/Royal rangers etc) who are faceless to the church week after week, yet they feed our children spiritually or the grandmothers who meet to intercede for everyone. Leaders of every institution (marriage, church, government, business etc) need not demand respect, but earn it just like everyone else with a life of integrity. People respect us when the fruit we bear is from the Spirit (producing a good character) and when we let them see and know our humanity (all have sinned and fallen short of His glory) and not pretend like perfect demi-gods.
Husbands (Christian) regardless of culture need to understand that in the unit called marriage, God has created your wife with unique features to compliment you and to make your marriage what He intends, the same way, wives need to understand that apart from your husband being the head of the marriage, he has unique features that not only compliment the marriage but help his leadership from God’s blueprint for marriage. Marriage is NOT 50/50 as many of you have heard it is 100/100, it is not a contract like we’ve been told, it is a COVENANT, as we learn to work towards unity in our marriages, we become mature in our walk with God.
The last principle of unity articulated by Apostle Paul is not considering our role as more important but serving others through our own roles and with our gifts. Apostle John helped us capture the essence of Christ as an example of this, in the opening of his epistle “in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God”, Christ who is God shed is “glory” to come into a stinking sinful world not only to die for our sins but to serve, washing the feet of fishermen and hanging out with the rejects of the society.
What is your unique gift? Are you called to teach? Are you called to lead? Are you called to clean the bathroom? Are you called to give from your financial wealth? Are you called to give of yourself in service? Whatever your unique gift is, remember that it is a part needed to make a unit, and it is not more important than the other parts in the unit and at the end of the day the glory that comes from “unity” goes back to God. Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Ephesians “from Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work”.
When humans (regardless of man-made strata such as financial, social etc) follow this principle of unity (rather than conformity), we archive a lot more and get the most benefit of the grace Christ extended to us, either in our marriages, in our communities and in our nations.
Remain Blessed
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