Genesis 2.18
“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Ecclesiastes 4.12
“And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
Proverbs 27.17
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”
Proverbs 21.9
“It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
It is a simple and timeless truth: Everything works better in life when our relationships are healthy and strong. When they go right, relationships are the source of our greatest happiness and fulfillment. When they go wrong, relationships are the source of our greatest sorrow and pain.
God created us as social beings. We are designed to be in relationships. Everything in the work depends on strong and healthy relationships. It is not possible to efficiently and effectively manage the a church, business, organization, or nation single-handedly. Nevertheless, countless people have tried to do so with minimal success. Inevitably, however, these same people eventually get so tired that they just can’t run the whole show anymore. After a while, even the most stalwart become weary of carrying never-ending responsibility alone.
In 1 Corinthians 12:12, the apostle Paul compared the Church to the human body, with different parts that are equipped to perform different functions. He says, “For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”
The Message Bible translates it this way: “You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts — limbs, organs, cells — but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It is exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said goodbye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything.”
As believers, we must say goodbye to our old, independent way of thinking and learn how to be integrated into a greater whole. We need each other, for without each other’s input and gifts, we are incomplete.
When God’s people come together as a team to achieve a common goal, their unified effort brings divine power and transforming impact to the world. If the people of God were to operate with the unity to which the Lord calls us, we would become the single greatest force for productive change in history.
For some, unity is a vague, dream-like wish for a day when Christians sweetly smile at each other and sing in harmony; disagreements are resolved and eliminated; and we all say, think, and do the same identical things. But the Bible never promises that a day will come when we all agree about everything! This is a false concept of unity. It’s a fantasy that will never be reached on this earth.
So what is unity? Unity occurs when people are united in action and energy for the common cause of the kingdom of God. The shared goal is so strong that it removes hostilities, eliminates egos, puts away non-essential disagreements, and gives previously divided people a reason to take their place alongside each other. When this occurs, different gifts, talents, and blessings become connected and integrated, and the result is an amazing release of divine power that achieves and accomplishes the impossible.
Unity empowers the Christian community to operate at full capacity.
It is simply a fact that extraordinary results are accomplished when concentrated attention is given to building elite teamwork. When this kind of chemistry and alignment is at work on your team or in your business or church, great things will happen.
Unity is not the results of magic or mysticism. It is the result of trusting God and doing the work.
