Why We Need Unity

By Greg Laurie, Op-ed contributor Friday, August 17, 2007

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. —Ephesians 4:4

When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you became a part of the church. You are a part of the body of Christ. We are all together in this new family, and we should do nothing to unnecessarily disrupt it. In Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul likens the church, the body of believers, to the human body.

All the parts of the body need to work together. For example, when I am speaking, I might gesture. I don't think about my gestures ahead of time. But as I am saying a certain thing, my hand is gesturing. My hand movements accentuate what I am saying verbally. The brain sends a signal to the hands, and the hands work together with the brain. But what if my hands suddenly decided to break loose and do their own thing while I was speaking? My hands could be contradicting what I am saying. Or, what if I was apologizing for something when my eyes decided to do their own thing and start rolling? My eyes would be contradicting what my mouth was saying.

Just as we need cooperation in the human body, we also need it in the body of Christ. We are working together as a body. But let's not misunderstand. Paul was not saying that it doesn't matter what we believe, that as long as we are spiritual and believe in a higher power, then we are God's children. Sometimes in our desire for unity, we can end up embracing the wrong beliefs.

Paul has told us that we need to be unified, but this is all predicated on biblical truth. And then we build that unity on the truth of what we have learned.

Used with Permission