Misconceptions About Unity
Misconception #1: There must be complete agreement to have unity.
We don’t have to see everything the same way in order to have unity. For example, in a marriage God generally brings the opposites together to form a union. Problems actually occur when one or both spouses try to change each other and make the spouse like himself/herself. The difference in a marriage can be a great blessing. If the difference is handled well, it brings balance and completeness to the marriage. If both spouses operated the same way, it may work great in some areas. However, other areas can suffer or become off-balanced. The same is true in the body of Christ. The scripture tells us:
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:16
Each part is important and each joint supplies. We don’t need everyone to be “eyes” in the body, and we don’t need everyone to be “ears” in the body. Each person has been called to fulfill their purpose in the body of Christ. That means we will not always see what someone else sees, and we will not hear what someone else is hearing. More importantly, God will give us different burdens for the church, ministry, people, and the community. Just because we don’t see or hear what someone else is seeing or hearing, it doesn’t mean they are wrong. Their burden may be a very valid burden, but it just hasn’t been revealed to us at the moment. Obviously, if something is unscriptural, then it must be dealt with appropriately.
Misconception #2: Conformity is unity.
Conformity is not unity! As a matter of fact, conformity produces a counterfeit to unity. That is man’s attempt to unity. People in their urge to express unity make compromises to the voice of the Holy Spirit in order to conform to the voice of those in power or in majority. Conformity is carnality, and it is based on fear of man. The scripture very clearly speaks against conformity but commands us to be transformed (See Romans 12:1-2).
Unity is a lot harder to achieve because it requires a transformation by the Holy Spirit. Unity stems from humility and love towards God, the body of Christ, and authority. Each of those elements are important to have a healthy unity. We cannot get united to people in a healthy way apart from being united to Christ first. If we are united with Christ, but we choose to either unite ourselves to authority or only to the body of Christ, we will eventually cause division.
Unity requires humility. It brings a lowliness that puts aside our stubborn individuality and allows the spirit of God to flow and bring something that we on our own cannot bring to the table. We have to suffer the loss of own opinion or preferences at times and value people regardless of how different they are from us!
To have unity in the body, we also need to have an attitude of thankfulness for those in authority over us. We are called to pray for them for they have a great responsibility before God to shepherd the people of God. We will not always agree, but we don’t need to agree to follow the leader or be submitted to them. They just need to be following the finger of God and what the Bible prescribes.
Lord, we need a renewal of mind in the area of unity. We want our hearts and minds to be aligned with yours. Help us to catch the little foxes that cause disunity among us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.