When unity is dangerous

November 3 - 9, 2024 | Always Peachy Devotionals | Unity Week 1

I was born in a broken world.

So were you. So was everyone who has ever lived since the day after Creation. The only people to ever experience a world without sin and brokenness were our first parents, Adam and Eve. They were the first and only humans to ever know what total, complete, perfect unity with God looked like.

Someday (sooner rather than later, I believe), we’ll get to know what that kind of unity looks like. We’ll get to experience it first-hand when we are living in eternity with Jesus and all the saints who have gone before us. But that’s someday. We are still living in Right Now. And unity is farther away from us now than it ever has been.

The world, the country, our families have never been more divided. And, yes, I’m fully aware of the timing of this devotional theme. I’d love to tell you it was an accident, but the Lord laid the theme of unity on my heart heavily several months ago.

I’ve learned over the years not to ignore Him.

So, here we are, in November 2024, on the eve of Election Day in the most vitriolic, most divisive, most overblown and exaggerated election season of my lifetime.

And all I can say, my friends, is that we are in serious trouble.

But then, the Church is in serious trouble too, and that’s where we need to focus first before we talk about anything else. Because if we can’t follow Jesus the way He has asked us to, how on earth can we choose an earthly leader? How can we possibly make wise choices if we reject the Giver of Wisdom? How can we even begin to govern our nation when we can’t even govern ourselves?

Our political disagreements, our policy arguments, our personal preferences—whatever it is that causes division between us—are all symptoms of a much deeper problem. And it’s that problem we’re going to talk about this month, because it doesn’t help to treat a symptom without taking care of the root cause.

But before we dive in and talk about how our fractured, fragmented world can achieve unity, we need to get a few things straight. See, I grew up with the perspective that unity is dangerous.

Have you ever thought about that? How can unity be dangerous? Isn’t unity something we all strive toward? Isn’t it something we all talk about wanting?

Don’t get me wrong. Unity is a beautiful thing. If you’ve ever seen a flock of birds flying together in the sky, they couldn’t do that without unity. People banding together, working side by side to accomplish a great goal, requires unity. But for every example of the beauty of unity, there are just as many examples of its ugly side.

Because, yes, unity has an ugly side. It’s called an angry mob. It’s called violent riots. It’s called gangs and cults and secret police. They’re all unified. They all work together to accomplish something. They are simply unified around something that goes against what God says is right.

So before we jump on the unity bandwagon with everybody else that uses it as a buzzword, let’s get it straight in our own heads what it looks like when unity turns ugly.

This week, we’re going to talk about the instances where unity can be dangerous.

• Monday - When Jesus isn’t at the center (2 Corinthians 11:4)

• Tuesday - When Truth isn’t the foundation (Galatians 1:6-7)

• Wednesday - When God’s Love isn’t the focus (Luke 11:42)

• Thursday - When petty disagreements cause division (Titus 3:9-10)

• Friday - When personal preference supersedes God’s Word (James 2:1)

As long as we live here on earth, we will be led by imperfect leaders. That’s the truth. No human preacher, speaker, politician, or YouTuber has the solution for what plagues our nation and our world. The only real solution is Jesus. Following Him. Trusting Him. Obeying Him. And if that’s the only thing Christians can agree on, let’s plant our flag there. We can work with that.

But even during the years of Jesus’ earthly ministry, He encountered self-focused religious leaders and governmental authorities that were only interested in accumulating power rather than serving their people. If you’ve read any portion of the four Gospels, you’ve probably seen how often Jesus clashed with the pharisees. The religious elite. The super-Christians.

It really looks to me like Jesus went out of His way to annoy them and bother them and poke holes in their holier-than-thou attitudes. And the verse that came to mind for our memorizing this week is tacked on at the end of one of Jesus’ altercations with the pharisees, Matthew 15:14.

The disciples were pointing out to Jesus (so helpful) that something He’d said had offended the pharisees (shocker). This is what He had to say, that those religious influencers didn’t know what they were doing, didn’t know where they were going, and were leading others to their doom.

Unity matters, absolutely. And we’ll talk more about that later this month. But before you join a club because someone used unity as a buzzword, make sure the one who’s leading it isn’t blind. Otherwise, you’ll all end up falling.

Praying for you this week!

Amy

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