Do you want your church to experience unity? If so, you can unlock the door to unity by functioning from your position in Christ, knowing and relying on God’s love, and guarding your heart. Now let’s see how walking together in the Spirit helps.
To Experience Unity, We Need to Walk Together in the Spirit
The Church is made up of people from different walks of life, backgrounds, giftings, and personalities. This will inevitably lead to disagreements as we come together with our own sets of perspectives and preferences. We need help outside of ourselves to rise above conflict and remain united.
In addition to being a diverse group of people, we’re all fallen human beings who don’t always get it right. Too often our self-centered human nature gets in the way. So, we read, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1). The solution? — “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Gal. 5:16)
The Spirit enables us to “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). Rather than “indulge the flesh”, we will “serve one another humbly in love” (Gal. 5:13).
Walking Together in the Spirit Leads to Fellowship
Philippians 2:1-2 provides keys to unity, one being the role of the Holy Spirit. — “If there is any fellowship of the Spirit” then we can be “of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.”
God wants us to “live in harmony with one another” (Rom. 12:16, NIV), also translated as being “of the same mind toward one another” (NASB). That will happen as we find our commonality (fellowship) in Christ as we walk together in the Spirit. Without fellowship, we don’t have unity, only outward conformity. If hearts remain unchanged, not truly melded together in love, it probably won’t last.
The title of this post adds the word “together” to our need to walk in the Spirit. As an individual, we can make every effort to be at peace with others (Rom. 12:18) as we walk in the Spirit but we can’t make them do the same. True unity requires a mutual coming together in fellowship of the Spirit.
Leaders can steer the church toward Body Life as God intends for us but must also steer the church toward God’s power to get there.