“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not professing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.” 

Martin Luther

You have to be a visitor from outer space not to recognise that our nation, homes, families, and churches are all divided. When Adam and Eve were created by the Lord, they were in perfect unity with God and each other, but when Satan came into their lives, unity disintegrated. One thing that Satan hates is to see Christians united. The more mature a Christian becomes, the more mature a church becomes, the more active Satan works in order to come and destroy that work.

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” – Psalm 13

This unity that the psalmist is talking about is not uniformity nor conformity. There are some people who think that unity is when you lump together a group of churches, or a group of denominations and have them join together in organisational unity. This is not the unity that the bible is talking about. There is no church, institution, or movement that can truly claim unity in Christ if they are not unified on the word of God.

“Biblical unity is not unity at any price. Biblical unity is not unity that is to go along to get along. Biblical unity is a unity of purpose, it is a unity of direction, it is a unity of total agreement upon the truth. Biblical unity is a unity of having a common commitment to the truth of the word of God.” – Dr Michael Youssef.

This principle of biblical unity spreads across the bible from cover to cover, yet believers, again and again, fall short of discerning this very important principle. I believe with all of my heart that this is one thing that the devil works harder on than anything else because, he knows that in obedience to this principle, there is a blessing from God that cannot be explained in human terms.

The unity between a husband and a wife is the secret for joy in marriage. The unity between believers in a given church is the secret of God’s blessing and activities in the life of that church. The unity between two friends who come together in Jesus Christ will open the windows of Heaven and bring answers to prayers. Here is what Jesus said:

“When two of you agree on earth about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven” – {Matthew 18:19}

Jesus prayed (John 17) that the disciples be united together. Why? Because He knew that their unity together in His Lordship is going to be a blessing. The Bible tells us that these twelve men turned the world upside down, and even the Roman empire was afraid of them. There are blessings in unity and curse in disunity. Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because they did not understand or practice this principle of biblical unity. They were divided, they murmured, and grumbled after being delivered from the slavery of Egpyt.

The scripture tells us (in Eph. 4:1-6) that we can experience unity of the spirit because of the very essence of our faith – our God is one; our faith is one; our baptism is one;  our hope is one; our spiritual unity and family is one. We have One God – the triune God, He is one, not three Gods. The three persons in the Godhead are in perfect unity, and not a hint of conflict or disagreement. Each person of the Trinity has a unique role to play, yet, there is not the slightest hint of disagreement or conflict within the Godhead.

But that’s not all, there is the Holy Spirit. One Holy Spirit indwells us all, we don’t have two-million or two-billion Holy Spirits indwelling different Christians. No, we have one Holy Spirit who indwells every believer, and that is why there is a unifying factor, and we can be united in the spirit in the body of Christ.

Back in the 1750s, when the British and the French were fighting in Canada, Admiral Phipps was the commander of the British fleet. He was told to go early and anchor outside of Quebec, he was ordered to wait for the British land forces to come in, and to support them when they attack the city. Phipps’ navy arrived early as ordered, and while waiting, the admiral became irritated by a few statues of saints on top of some cathedral nearby to where he was anchored. The statues irritated the admiral so much that he commanded his men to open the ships’ cannon to shoot them down.

No one knows how many rounds that were fired, or how many statues of the saints that were knocked down, but it was said that when the land forces arrived, and the signal was given to attack the city, Admiral Phipps was of no help, because he had already used up all of his ammunition shooting at the saints. If there is anything to take away from this story, it is this – We need to save our energy and time for the real spiritual battle with the enemy and not with one another. A house divided against itself cannot stand (Matthew 12:22-28).