In a moment of joy and inspiration, the Psalmist sings out:
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!” (Psalm 133)
This is a song of praise for unity among Jews in ancient Israel, but even more it is a song in praise of unity in the Christian church. Unity as the body of Christ, with Him as our head.
Here’s Jesus, praying for His flock on the night He was betrayed:
“I do not ask for these only (His disciples), but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
He fervently prayed for unity in the church. And he said that this unity would be the sign that the Father had indeed sent Him to save the world, just as He had claimed. Christian unity shows the glory of God:
“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
Unity in the church glorifies God. It is the sign that Jesus and the Father are one, and it is the sign that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to save it.
The path to unity is the sacrificial love seen on the cross. Unity becomes possible when we take up our cross for the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ in the same way that He took up His cross out of love for us, in spite of the fact that we are sinners.
“Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friend.” This is the love that Jesus showed on the cross, and it is the love that produces unity when we lay down our lives for each other.
But what does this mean? How exactly do we “lay down our lives” like Jesus?
Paul explains it: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Phil. 2:5-7).
To be like Jesus is to humble ourselves and make ourselves servants instead of masters. This kind of self-sacrificing love is the only path to unity in the church.
This kind of love is gentle. It is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It considers others to be of more importance than itself. It rejoices with those who rejoice and weeps with those who weep.
This kind of love glorifies God to the world because the Father and the Son and the Spirit are perfectly united in love. And we too can be perfectly united—can shine like a light in the darkness of a world gone mad with envy and fighting—when we take up the cross of Jesus and follow Him.
We take up our cross because of the prize that is set before us, which is the good and pleasant refreshment of unity among the brothers, which is like “precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes.”
Written by Jay Trott
