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What the Bible says about Godly Unity
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Psalm 133:1

This first verse expresses the goal, the hope, the prayer of all Christians. What a great thing it would be if all the people could live together harmoniously! What things we could accomplish! What great pleasure we would have! How attractive that would be.

This verse certainly expresses the joy that results in brethren being united, when they have unanimity, when they are "at one." An irony of this "psalm of unity," however, is that the word "unity" does not literally appear in it. The literal translation of the last phrase is "when brethren dwell also together." The idea of unity is obviously there, but the final Hebrew word is yachad, meaning "together," "both," "joined." The phrase can be translated, then, "when brethren are joined in dwelling" or "when brethren dwell together." "In unity" is the translator's interpretation, not a direct translation.

The word "good" here is a fairly general rendering, but the psalmist's idea is "proper": "How proper it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" "How fitting, how right it is for God's people to be one."

Pleasant has the sense of "attractive": "How attractive [charming, lovely] it is when God's people dwell as one." And since we are God's dwelling, we could say, "How wonderful it is when God's dwelling, the Temple of the living God, is one building and not scattered pieces all over the place."

In God's sight, unity or togetherness among His people is proper, and it pleases Him to no end. It has the same effect on us. Brethren who are thus joined together receive the benefits of the goodness and pleasantness unity produces. That is why we should yearn for this unity, because it is right, good, and fitting and because it is lovely, attractive, and appealing.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Psalm 133 (1998)

Psalm 133:1

Godly unity produces joy because it overcomes the sorrow of self-seeking and fulfills the true love of outgoing concern for others. Joy through unity comes when God's people have all things in common—the same beliefs and desires working toward a common goal.

Martin G. Collins
Joy

2 Corinthians 10:1-4

Notice what meekness is contrasted to. Meekness is synonymous with kindness, to gentleness, and in this context, it is contrasted with competitiveness and being warlike. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.

What do carnal people do? They compete with each other. They make war with one another. In contrast, Paul will make war, as it were, with meekness, kindness, and gentleness.

Meekness is contrasted with speaking evil of others and contentious brawling in Titus 3:1-2:

Remind them [those on Crete whom Titus pastored] to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.

Meekness is not being competitive. It is not going all out to win against others and going to war, as it were, to be vindicated and justified. It turns the other cheek. It submits with kindness.

Paul provides another part of the picture in Galatians 6:1:

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness [meekness], considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

What the meek do to keep the strife and competition, brawling and argumentativeness, from coming to the fore is they take a good hard look at themselves, and then they treat others with the same gentleness and kindness that they wish to be treated with.

If they are directly involved in a dispute, the meek have a strong tendency to follow what Paul writes in I Corinthians 6:7-8:

Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong [or, suffer loss]? Why do you not rather allow yourselves be cheated? No, yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!

So, the meek have a ready willingness to suffer wrong against them because, after looking at themselves and comparing what God could have done to them and what they are in relation to Him, peace and unity are more important to them than appearing to win. While they are firm and uncompromising in preserving the truth, they are not constrained to overwhelm and defeat an adversary, make their point, and put others in their place. It is very likely that they will simply appeal to the one contending with them and exhort them to do the right thing.

People tend to love the meek and lowly in mind. They pull people toward them. Their attitude almost works "like magic." But there is no magic involved; it is simply godly character at work.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Unity (Part 7): Ephesians 4 (D)

Ephesians 1:10

We say that we are "in Christ." We say that there is "one church." We say that there is "one Body," "one Family," "one Kingdom." What is said here in Ephesians 1 is where God is headed with all this. He will unite everybody who has ever been born and makes it into His Kingdom into one—one family, the God Family—one kingdom, the Kingdom of God. The church is simply the beginning of an awesome process—a tremendous project—that will eventually cover the 50 or 60 billion people who have ever lived on the face of this earth.

We who are now begotten children of God are at the prow of the ship, as it were, cutting the water as we forge ahead. It is our calling to have gotten in on the ground floor, the very beginning of the process. We have entered the process even before all of the great men and women we have read about in the histories of the nations. They will get their opportunity, but we are way ahead of them.

Why has God had to do this? The basic cause is what happened in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve sinned. Sin is disruptive; it divides, and it divided our first parents away from the one Family. As Paul says in Romans 5:12, "All have sinned." We have all sinned—maybe not exactly as Adam and Eve did, but everybody has sinned. We have followed our parents in becoming separated from God. Sin divides away from God, and man from man. The world has been shattered by sin. One could say, then, that the central object of salvation is to reunite all mankind into one Family.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Unity (Part 6): Ephesians 4 (C)

Ephesians 3:8-11

Paul says virtually the same thing here that he says in chapter one. He just changes the vocabulary. What have we been called or invited to? To be one with God—to be in His Family, His Church, and His Kingdom—all of these are a progression of the same basic thought. God is drawing everybody to Him, to be one with Him (a unity that was broken in Adam and Eve's sin of submitting to Satan rather than submitting to God).

John W. Ritenbaugh
Unity (Part 6): Ephesians 4 (C)

Ephesians 4:1-3

The human heart has an ever-present inward pull that always works against unity. Even with conversion, and the power that comes with the receipt of the Holy Spirit, our latent self-concern still reaches out and damages relationships, destroying unity. Even when there are the best intentions, misunderstandings are still caused by differing conversion levels, viewpoints, experiences, generations, and even dictions. While we may pour ourselves into abiding by the laws that govern relationships, because of the human nature that remains within us, it takes an act of God for the extraordinary to happen and true unity to be produced. God holds the key to the problem of disunity; our own efforts will be a mixed bag at best.

In Jesus' last prayer with His disciples, He specifically and repeatedly asked the Father to make His present and future disciples one, just as the Father and the Son are one with each other (John 17). They enjoy perfect unity and are the source of it. Jesus would not have wasted, as it were, that final prayer with the disciples on something they could have brought about on their own. Part of the Father's answer to that prayer—just a few hours later—was the giving of His Son to pay the penalty for sin, which is the source of disunity between God and man (Isaiah 59:1-2). With that gulf bridged, the way is opened for redeemed men to become one with God.

Our relationship with God is the key to unity with the brethren because that relationship exists to bring us into the same spiritual image as God—the "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13; see Genesis 1:26). When we all perfectly resemble Jesus Christ, we will also all resemble each other—and there will be unity. Just as two stones fit together when there is a uniform, smooth surface between them, so will we fit together when our lives match the same spiritual standard—Jesus Christ.

Thus, the general cause of disunity among brethren is a breakdown somewhere in the relationship with God. By extension, the solution to disunity is not to try to get everybody together, but rather to restore the relationship with God. This can, of course, only be done on an individual basis—while a brother may be able to give advice, encouragement, and exhortation, he cannot fix somebody else's relationship.

While there are many things that we would like to be able to do but cannot, the one thing we can do is try to perfect our unity with God. Greater unity with others who are likewise pursuing God's spiritual image will result, but it can only happen in that order. Pursuing unity among men first while leaving God in the background inevitably leads to compromise.

Proverbs 18:19 tells us, "A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle." It does not say it is impossible—it implies extreme difficulty. Yet how many strong cities and castle defenses were the Israelites able to overcome when God was on their side? How many did they overcome when He was not? With God on our side, even offended brethren can eventually be won over, for "when a man's ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Proverbs 16:7). Again, the key to unity lies with God, not in the efforts that we can—and should—put forth.

There is a specific condition for that verse to be fulfilled, though: A man's ways must be pleasing to the Lord, which describes his relationship with His Creator. Similarly, Isaiah 66:2 gives a description of the one whom God will pay attention to when he asks for something like unity: ". . . But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word." A man who is growing in unity with God is one whom God will be glad to help in overcoming the problems of disunity.

David C. Grabbe
United With Whom?


 




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