One of Christ’s primary concerns in His prayer in the garden the night before His crucifixion was unity: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:20-23).
Paul reiterated its importance. “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:1-6).
Our Father’s Kingdom is one of peace, harmony and unity (Isaiah 9:6-7). The Father enjoins all His people to actively seek peace and unity with Him and with each other: “Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life, And loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it (Psalms 34:11-14). Consequently, a desire for peaceful, unified relationships should motivate all our thoughts and actions.
Division is the absolute opposite of unity and destroys peace and harmony. Our Father views division in His Church as sedition or insurrection against Him and His Holy Purpose. Knowing how important unity is to the Father and how He views division, we need to ask ourselves if we are individually or collectively responsible for division.
Paul defines for us the basic cause of division as carnality: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not carnal?” (I Corinthians 3:1-4). Carnality is behaving as mere mortal men having our thoughts based mainly in this temporal, material, natural, world. In Corinth, the people were driven more by their five senses and thoughts than by being led by the Holy Spirit.
In Galatians 5, Paul describes carnality as “works of the flesh”. “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). Of these seventeen “works” 8 of them are direct causes of division – hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, and envy.
Paul immediately follows with the antidote to these fleshly works: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16). When we do walk in the Spirit, we produce the 9 fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). The Holy Spirit in us can overpower all pulls of the flesh.
It is important that we all accept that these eight dividing pulls of the flesh reside in each of us. We must root out each of these fleshly works in order to stand united, shoulder to shoulder, to the glory of our Father.
Bill Hutchison