Unity In The Community

The greatest danger facing the church today is an attack on the authority of the Word of God. There has become a gentle coldness and indifference to biblical truth and God’s standards of righteousness. We want to live like we want to live, we want to act like we want to act, we want to do what we want to do. And because of our own agendas, we have brought in attitudes that affect the unity of the church.

The reason that there is an attack on the church, is because many folk don’t want to endure sound doctrine. The bible says but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; Some folk want to do what they want to do and leave God’s plans out of His church.

When we leave God’s plan out of the church it will cause disruption, weakening and even destroy a church.

You see, the strength of the church is not based upon the membership of the church. It is not base upon how great the preachers are. It’s not based upon how good the choir sounds. The church’s strength is based upon the person that founded the church. It is in Jesus Chris that we live, and we move and have our being. The foundation of the church and yours and my faith must be built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and his righteousness.

Paul saw this problem in all the church that he ministered and he noted the problem in each of his biblical letters to the church. In other words, there were divisions in the church. There were big I’s and little U’s. There were some who thought they owned the church. There were some who thought that they were the only ones that were right.

One of the problems that Paul pointed out is that Christians ought to dwell together in unity.

Paul pointed out that the church is not about self. Self is all about the individual. But the Kingdom is about the body. As Ephesians 4:4 says, "We are all one body." The Church isn’t made up of a lot of disconnected folk. The Church is not you over there doing your thing and me over here doing my thing. Imagine if your hand suddenly decided that it didn’t want to work with your arm. Or your leg didn’t want to work with your knee. But, when every part is working together in unity. You become one body with many members.

I’ve always been fascinated by the early church as described in the book of Acts. The early church was a strong and powerful unit of simple, ordinary and like minded folk who loved God with all their heart.

If we take a closer look at the book of Acts, we see that the early church believers were doing some amazing things.

They were anointed and full of the Holy Spirit

They were preaching the Word of God with boldness

Miracles, Signs and Wonders followed the preaching of the Word.

Thousands were being saved and added to the church

People gave themselves and their possessions for the cause of Christ.

They were so united that they were filled with the Holy Spirit that they turned their world upside down.

I wonder why the same things are not happeing in our churches today.

The bible declares that Jesus never changes, He cannot change, He is the same yesterday and today and forevermore. God never changes, he says that I am God and I change not.

We have more information than ever before.

We have greater teachers than ever before.

We have more people than ever before.

Each one of us is unique. We’re unique in our appearance, unique in our character. We are unique in our gifts, unique in our maturity, unique in our abilities and unique in many other ways.

In the book of Acts there is one phase that appears again and again, and that term is “one accord.” The early church was on one accord. They were united. They had things in common.

The phase “one accord” is actually repeated 11 times in the book of acts and only 1 other time in the New Testament.

The early church was on one accord and I believe that unity was one of the reasons that the blessings and the power of God fell down upon it. The bible says “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”.

These believers had one mind, one purpose, one heart.

If we want to see the power of God manifested in our church today, we need to be a church that is on one accord.

In Psalm 122 the Bible says “How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.”