Unity

For years I have heard a ton of teaching on UNITY in the Churches I have attended. Now it seems the current culture also wants unity… or do they? What is UNITY?

u•ni•ty

  [yoo-ni-tee]

noun, plural u•ni•ties.

1. the state of being one; oneness.

2. a whole or totality as combining all its parts into one.

3. the state or fact of being united or combined into one, as of the parts of a whole; unification.

4. absence of diversity; unvaried or uniform character.

5. oneness of mind, feeling, etc., as among a number of persons; concord, harmony, or agreement.

Unity is the group being unified, in agreement, oneness, combined - United by a purpose or cause.

In the world it means conforming. Conforming to what though? Conforming to lies, evil actions and murder? Sometimes. And unfortunately it’s getting worse. In the world, if you are disagreeable, you are rejected, hated and maybe even murdered.

In the Church, Unity has come to mean something similar. Agree with us or else… So, in the Church, how do we “agree” or reach “unity”?

We can’t, if we don’t tell anyone what we think.

If we are “agreeable”, it may seem like we are unified. But we are not.

“Oh, but I should get along!”

It does seem to be done for a good reason - Peace, and pleasant fellowship.

“Why, it’s done because we love each other!”

Not so.

I can ask you if you love your spouse. You would of course say, “well yes”. Say, you have known your wife (named Betty Boop, for my example) for 30 years. Today, you find out she is an Ex Russian Spy named Natasha Romanov (Yes, your wife is the famous Black Widow). Ok, aside from thinking “WOO HOO”, now I ask you, do you LOVE your wife? No.

“What? What do you mean?? Of course I would LOVE the Black Widow!”

How can you love her? You don’t even know Natasha Romanov. In fact, she has put on a front, acted a role, because she is a super spy. The woman you love, Betty Boop, doesn't even exist. Aside from the bizarre fact that Natasha named her fake persona from a 1940’s cartoon character, and you believed it… you don’t have any real relationship with your “wife”. Therefore you have no real love for her.

The Church today is much like this. Because we don’t want to offend (for the sake of UNITY), we don’t really let anyone know what we think, nor do we want to know what anyone else thinks. Why? Well, because they may disagree with us. It may start an argument. They may get offended… How foolish.

If you do not let your brothers and sisters in Christ KNOW you, how can they truly have UNITY or LOVE with you?

They can’t. You do not have any more of a REAL relationship with them than Natasha does with her, totally bamboozled spouse.

Fake people at Church! None of us would like to admit that this is us. However, if you hide all the biblical things you believe just to conform to the group, NO ONE KNOWS WHO YOU REALLY ARE. You are a Betty Boop! Acting as a made up character for a misguided reason.

How do you fix this?

Let people know you. Share your heart. Share your mind. Feel free to disagree! Feel free to say what you believe! If you are a person of truth, you will either learn to defend what you believe, or be convinced of the others point. Either way, you win, unless you have a really sensitive ego and can’t handle being proven wrong. In that case, you need to spend more time in prayer and frankly… grow up.

So speak your heart… just don’t be a jerk about it. We are not competing in a contest. We are running a race side by side.

There is always one truth and an infinite number of lies. So we are in this hunt for truth together. That is what the Church is for.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 (NIV)

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Instead of talking about Unity, we need to start practicing it. Then we can truly get to that place where Jesus said “you will know they are my disciples by the love they have for each other”.

Otherwise, we are just playing “church”.