LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
True Unity
The things of God can only be understood spiritually. Man understands the things of man, but not the things of God. The things of God no one understands except by the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:11).
When we try to understand the things of God without the revelation of the Spirit of God, we fall into great confusion. The human mind is very prodigious, and the flesh very effective. And it becomes even more dangerous when we manage to group several people around the same opinion. This is man-made unity, which God disapproves of.
A testimony to this is the tower of Babel. They said: "Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Gen. 11:4). This was a man-made attempt at unity, which God destroyed. Whether it is around a name, a doctrine, a supposed vision or something similar, every attempt by man to create unity will be destroyed by God. If man wants to promote any unity, he will be competing with the unity made by Christ. It will be a Babel, a Babylon.
The only unity that God approves is that which Jesus accomplished on the cross: "And not for the nation only, but also to gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad" (Jn. 11:52), and which is now sustained by His Spirit: "For by one Spirit we were baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and we were all given to drink of one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:13).
In his body, there on the cross, he dissolved all enmity, making peace (Eph. 2:15). He reconciled us to God and made us one with him and with all the brethren. One flock and one shepherd.
God fulfilled his promise in Christ: "For thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I myself will go and search for my sheep, and will search them out. As the shepherd recognizes his flock in the day when he is in the midst of his scattered sheep, so will I recognize my sheep, and will deliver them out of all the places where they were scattered in the day of clouds and darkness. And I will bring them out of the people, and gather them out of the countries, and will bring them into their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel, and by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the land" (Ezek. 34:11-13).
Any unity other than that of our Lord Jesus will be in competition with His glory: "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one" (Jn. 17:22). We are not to promote any kind of unity, but only to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, with all lowliness, meekness and longsuffering (Eph. 4:2-3). That is the unity that was already made by Jesus. If we do not keep this, then we will be promoting division. A division against their unity, a work of the flesh, sensual, without anything of the Spirit: "These are the ones who cause divisions, the sensual ones, who have not the Spirit" (Jude 1:19). May the Lord open the eyes of our understanding and deliver us from committing such a sin.