God’s Commitment to Unity

God is committed to unity.

God’s priority of unity is emphasized throughout Scripture.

Unity is inferred on the very first pages of Scripture, when a unified God acts to create the world and all things in it and beyond it.  When God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26) He clearly inferred divine unity:  there is plurality in the Godhead (“Us…Our”), yet there is unity in the nature of God (“Our image…Our likeness” is singular/unified), and there is a unified decision in the Godhead (“Let Us make man…”).  The Triune Godhead is unified. 

That divine unity is also affirmed in the ministry of Christ (Mt. 11:27; Lk. 3:21-22; Jn. 1:18; 6:37ff; 10:18, 30; 14:21; 15:24) and especially stressed in His longest recorded prayer (John 17).  In that prayer Jesus affirms unity with the Father because they are in one another (vv. 21, 23), they have a unified purpose in Christ being sent to earth (vv. 3, 21b, 23), they are unified in the glory they possess (vv. 1, 4-5, 22, 24), they are one (v. 22b), they are unified in their love for one another (vv. 24, 26), and they have a unified authority (v. 2).  The Godhead is multiple in persons, but it is one (Dt. 6:4).

Christ’s work on earth was redemptive in saving men from sin and wrath, but it also was unifying, in bringing diverse people together into one unified people of God (Jn. 17:21-23; see also 13:34-45).

That unity in the church is also reflected as a common theme in the New Testament Epistles.  The first church gathered in unity as they worshipped and served with “one mind” (Acts 1:14; 2:46; 4:32; Rom. 12:16; 15:5; Phil. 1:27; 1 Pt. 1:22).  They were diverse as individuals in that they had unique gifting and abilities, but they were one people with one purpose in serving Christ.

The reality of many individual members yet being aligned in one singular church is especially affirmed in the passages relating to the spiritual gifts (e.g., Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:4-6, 12-14; Eph. 4:12-13).  “The body is one…all the members of the body…are one body…baptized into one body…the body…” (1 Cor. 12:12-13; my emphasis).  No matter individual distinctions, there is only one unified body of Christ.

Humility is necessary to maintain unity, and Christ is the great exemplar of that humility (Phil. 2:2ff).  He is adequate in the same way for all His people and He is the unifying power for His people (Col. 3:11). 

Fifty-eight times the epistles use the phrase “one another” for a variety of activities that should be reflected in the church (like, “love one another,” “accept one another,” “welcome one another,” and “forgive one another”).  Each of those emphasizes the inter-relatedness of the members of the one church of Christ; we really are one.

And the book of Ephesians particularly sets out the unity of the church.  There is a common love among all the believers who make up the one church of Christ (Eph. 1:15, 22-23).  Gentiles have been enfolded into the people of God with the Jews (2:11ff) so that there is one church body (2:16) and one church that is being built (2:21-22).  Those Gentiles are even fellow heirs with the Jews (3:10).  And the first implication Paul makes about the work of Christ is saving sinners is that they live worthily of that salvation by being unified with one another.  In the opening section of application of our salvation (4:1-16) “unity” is mentioned twice (vv. 3, 13), “one another/ each other / all” is used four times (vv. 2, 6, 7, 13), “oneness” is mentioned seven times (vv. 4 [3x], 5 [3x] 6) and there are at least two other implied references to unity (vv. 7, 15).  Of all the responsibilities of the believer, the first one expounded by Paul is the unity of believers and the responsibility to preserve that unity.

God is one.  And in His oneness, He has made His people one and is committed to preserving that unity in them. 

Because God is one and is committed to unity, every believer in the one church of Christ is also compelled to be committed to unity — “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3)