God’s Will is Unity

“They should’ve stayed together!” her son shouted, as the film’s credits scrolled down the TV screen.

It was a rainy afternoon when Jean and her son settled down in their family room to watch a movie. The rain cancelled her son’s sports event and Jean cherished this gift of time to spend with him.

His movie pick had lots of action with a storyline of conflict between good guys and bad guys. Her movie selection would have been one less intense but she didn’t care because time spent with her son was special. Sitting together, they shared a bowl of crispy snacks, as the movie’s first scene splashed over the screen promising it wouldn’t disappoint an action loving movie fan.

The bad guys were pretty bad. Their plan was to conquer and plunder a town occupied by the good guys. This plan was not without a challenge because the good guys built their town at the top of a steep hill and surrounded it with stone walls. The bad guys waited and watched for the perfect opportunity to conquer the town.

Their first strategy was to use fear to get the good guys to surrender. Fear was successful in their last conquest because the people surrendered the town to them without a fight. But this strategy didn’t work on this town. The bad guys failed and the good guys succeeded.

The bad guys implemented their second strategy which was force. They had perfected equipment to break down walls built to protect towns and were confident this strategy would work. But it didn’t. The town’s stone walls didn’t yield to their battering equipment. The bad guys failed and the good guys succeeded.

Distraction was their next strategy. They sent a team of men to the northside of the town and orchestrated a chaotic scene to make it look like they were moving their camp. But a watchman on the wall spotted the bad guys creeping up to the town’s southside. The bad guys failed and the good guys succeeded.

This brought the count to three strategies that didn’t work and the bad guys were angry, frustrated and weary. This town’s people wouldn’t surrender; its walls wouldn’t fall and a watchman on the wall ruined their surprise attack.

They began to discuss a plan to move on because this town occupied by the good guys was like no other—it stood strong. But a voice pierced their veil of defeat.

A man, usually content to sit outside their planning circle and silently observe them, spoke. He stepped into their inner circle and presented a different strategy the evildoers hadn’t heard before.

His strategy was to break their unity and divide them so they would fight each other. With this strategy the bad guys wouldn’t fight but patiently wait for the good guys to destroy each other.

His plan flowed easily from his mouth. Seeds of divisiveness would be sown and with the right amount of time and water would sprout into self-interest, distrust and finally blossom into hatred for each other. The people in the town would begin to divide into factions and fight each other.

His strategy was simple and powerful. A false communication, the seed of doubt and mistrust, was placed in a spot where a town’s resident would accidently discover it. This communication claimed their leader had a secret alliance that would ensure victory for the bad guys and a share of the town’s plunder to reward his change of loyalty.

This false communication was written, placed and discovered. But there was more to the plan.

To water the seeds of divisiveness, the creator of this strategy, played a part. He gained entry into the town by posing as a traveler from a distant country. Because he dressed in clothes that hinted of wealth and his posture, speech and personality commanded respect and attention he gained their trust. Nothing about him hinted that he was the man who once sat silent outside the circle of evil planners. He spoke about having a strategy to save their town and the people listened.

The townspeople divided. Some refused to believe that their leader was compromised and others put their hope in this well-spoken, charismatic, powerful man who promised to deliver them peace and security.

The town occupied by the good guys was no longer united in their fight against the bad guys but now divided and began to fight each other. With patience the enemy waited and soon the town was theirs. The bad guys won and the good guys lost.

And Jean’s son shouted, “They should’ve stayed together!”

Jesus Unites the Church

A strategy of Christ’s enemy is to destroy the unity of the church. Overtly and covertly, seeds of divisiveness are sown so we fight each other instead of him. We can’t let this happen. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus because our unity in Jesus keeps us together.

Never forget the battle is real and we’re not fighting flesh and blood.

It’s our unity with Jesus that enables us to keep the enemy from taking over the town we’ve been assigned to occupy. Stay together!

Scripture and Unity

Jesus prays for unity.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17: 20-23 (NIV)

God promises unity.

“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Matthew 16:18 (NIV)

Unity can’t exist in isolation.

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)

Christ’s enemy is real.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12 (NIV)