"Principles of the Kingdom of God: Law of Unity" Elder Bob Vibe
October 8, 2023 Speaker: Elder Bob Vibe
Passage: Genesis 11:1-9, John 17:20-23
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Principles of the Kingdom of God
The Law of Unity
October 8, 2023
Elder Bob Vibe
During my past two visits to this pulpit, I have been teaching on the principles of the Kingdom of God. My first message was that the Kingdom of God had come into the hearts and lives of every believer. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within us! My second message in the series was how the principle or law of reciprocity works in everyday life. The foundational “Give, and it shall be given to you;” and verse 31: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” I explained that these teachings of Jesus were more than theoretical principles. Instead, they are teachings of God’s truth that God has ordained to work in everyday life. As Jesus left this world after His resurrection, He then commanded His disciples to make disciples of all nations and to teach about the invisible kingdom that rules this visible world.
The principle I would like to share with you today is the law or principle of Unity. As defined in Strong’s Concordance, unity is oneness or unanimity. A powerful illustration of unity is found in God Himself. At the moment of creation there was unity or oneness among the Trinity. In Genesis 1:26 it says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’” This is the only place in the creation account where this language is used. It demonstrates that there was a joint effort in working together that involved more than one person of the Godhead, yet they acted as one. This is a fundamental truth of unity. It is more than one, working in harmony as one.
With the very beginnings of our universe, God was communicating that unity was present. During the account of the fall of man in Genesis 3:22-23, the writer uses the word Us one more time: “Then the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.’ So, the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.” Even during the judgment of man, God was in unity. It should be noted that when man was banished from the Garden of Eden, it was because man had sinned against God, which caused the bond of unity between them to be severed.
I believe that one of God’s desires for man is to enter into the kind of unity that exists in the Kingdom of God. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus prayed that God’s Kingdom would come and that His Will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Just as there is unity with God in heaven, our desire and goal should be to be in unity with God in our individual lives and the life of our church communities in this world.
When we think about more than one person working in harmony as one, I think about our physical limitations in accomplishing unity. Do we see unity at work in this world today? Is it an obtainable goal in the world we live in? Even in the most basic relationship of husband and wife, unity in a household is not easily achieved. Usually with two people, we have two differing views on many issues regarding daily living. Consider a larger group, such as a business or a nation; a majority opinion is the norm and unity among all members is rare. Agreement is usually achieved by compromise and doesn’t always produce true unity. God does call us to unity, but a unity that can only be achieved when we become unified in Him. It is a unity that begins with becoming one with God and His plans and purposes for our individual lives and the lives of our churches, and furthering His Kingdom on the earth.
The operation of the Law of Unity with God was the subject of an often-quoted statement used when two or more pray, revealed in Matthew 18:19-20. It is referred to as the prayer of agreement.
Jesus speaking to His disciples said, “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven; for where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” Jesus is not only calling for agreement, but unity. Since He would be in our midst when we gather, we would be expected to agree with Jesus, as we are led by the Holy Spirit when we pray. Our unity would be an external manifestation of our internal agreement and submission to Him. In submitting to Him, we submit to His will and become one with Him and His will which is always accomplished by our Father in Heaven.
This power of the principle of unity is also recorded in the Book of Acts during the beginning of the Church as the disciples waited for the promised Holy Spirit. In Acts 1:14 it states, “These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer.” Before the Holy Spirit came, the disciples were in unity of heart and mind waiting for His arrival. They became one with Jesus’ command to go and wait for the promised Spirit. A result of that unity of expectation was the power of God that flowed to all who were present. There was such harmony and unity between believers in the early church that they voluntarily shared all they had with one another, and the church grew and prospered.
In Acts, chapter 4, when Peter and John were taken into custody for miraculously healing a 40-year-old crippled man, they were released, and the people raised their voices together in prayer to the Lord. The result of their prayer in one accord is recorded in verse 31: “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly.” We need to take a lesson from the early church and pray by raising our voices together in unity of purpose so that we can experience the same powerful results in our church today.
A fascinating aspect of unity is that it can generate a power that can work for good or evil. We find this illustrated in Genesis, chapter 11, in the story of the Tower of Babel which was read earlier. In verse 1, it states that the entire world had one language and one common speech. Can you imagine how simple things would be today if we all spoke the same language and truly understood one another? When they discovered the use of bricks and mortar, they started to work together in harmony. They decided to build a city and then a tower that reached to the heavens. However, their motive for this plan was not pure, as verse 4 reveals: “…so that we can make a name for ourselves.” They didn’t want to build a tower to heaven to seek God, but for their own glory, to make a name for themselves. This attitude has its root in pride, and we know that God resists the proud and exalts the humble. Even though the pursuit of these people was prideful and sinful to God, it is interesting what God had to say about what they could accomplish since they were working in unity. In verse 6, God said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.”
In this one small sentence in Genesis, God unveils the power of a people being of one mind speaking the same thing. According to God, that power was unlimited. He said, “Nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” Since these plans were motivated from a sinful desire, God resisted their plans and caused them to fail by confusing their speech and scattering them abroad. However, in these verses God reveals the potentially unlimited power that can be unleashed by a people who are united in spirit and purpose, a power that can accomplish anything. If we would begin to practice this principle of unity by seeking harmony with God and His purposes, there is no end to its benefits in our own lives, the lives of families, the lives of our churches, and all who are in God’s Kingdom.
Unity must begin with the individual becoming one with God. The difficulty arises when we don’t seek God and His kingdom first. The well-known story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42 illustrates the problem. You remember how Martha invited Jesus into her home and her sister Mary sat at the feet of Jesus listening to the Lord’s words. This upset Martha because she was distracted with all her preparations, and she made her case to the Lord to have Mary help her with these preparations. But the Lord was not sympathetic toward Martha and said to her that she was too worried and bothered about things, but one thing was necessary, and Mary had chosen that necessary part, sitting at the feet of Jesus. Both Mary and Martha had probably been present at Jesus feeding the multitude in the previous chapter. However, Martha had no peace, no unity of mind and spirit. She was troubled and worried about fixing dinner. She represents how easy it is for us to be distracted in the world even when we may be in the presence of Jesus who has already demonstrated His ability to provide for us. In contrast, Mary had chosen the good part, the part that brings harmony and unity of purpose to our lives…Mary chose Jesus knowing that Jesus was able to provide.
In contrast to unity, Jesus spoke of division which leads to ruin in Matthew, chapter 12. When the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons, Jesus responded with the following universal principle: “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.” Jesus’ point was simple. Without unity in any group, that group will ultimately fail. Dissension and double mindedness will lead to confusion and destruction. Even though Jesus was addressing the kingdom of Satan, the principle remained true; a house divided against itself will not stand, no matter what the house!
Looking at unity simply from a secular perspective, larger groups such as businesses or corporations can benefit from unity or suffer from a lack of it. As a business grows, they are more apt to prosper if they continue to grow in areas that are in harmony or unity with their stated mission or purpose. Many companies have failed because they have departed from their original course or mission. The same result can happen in churches. If we continue to stay in agreement or unity with the Holy Sprit who leads us in the ministry or work that God is doing in our midst, churches will grow and prosper. However, if we take our eyes off Jesus, and continue a course not in unity with what God is doing, we will falter.
A good example of unity in our nation was with our Founding Fathers as they sought God to form a “more perfect union.” In the book, the 5,000 Year Leap, the writer gives the account of how these men came into unity over one small provision of our government, the election of a President. They were not satisfied with making a decision based on the majority but sought unity and consensus in this important matter. The author said, “It is a mistake to describe the Constitution as a conglomerate of compromises because extreme patience was used to bring the minds of the delegates into agreement rather than simply force the issue to finality with a compromise. This is demonstrated in the fact that over 60 ballots were taken before they resolved the issue of how to elect the President. They could have let the matter lie after the first ballot, but they did not. They were anxious to talk it out until the vast majority felt good about the arrangement. That is why it took 60 ballots to resolve the matter.” This commitment to unity by our Founding Fathers is why this book is subtitled, A Miracle That Changed the World.
It is time to get into unity with God once again and return to God’s mission for our nation. To demonstrate to the world that people living in freedom, and acknowledging God in all we do, causes an unparalleled release of God’s blessing. We saw this release of blessing during the first 180 years of our nation and we prospered as no other nation on earth. However, during the last many years, we have wandered away from harmony with God, resulting in His blessing being diminished significantly.
Let me add that unity does not spring forth from uniformity. It does not mean that we are all the same in how we enter unity with God’s purposes, whether that purpose is for us individually, for our families, or other organizations that we are part of. The unity of the Godhead makes this very clear. There is distinctiveness even with the oneness of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit.
A great example of unity with diversification is the variety of gifts of the Sprit as revealed in I Corinthians 12:4-7: “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” Unity through diversity is God’s design. In contrast, the world celebrates a diversity that brings division. We all have different gifts and talents, but the use of those gifts can only be in unity to achieve the common good when we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in the use of those gifts for His purposes.
Consider an orchestra. An orchestra is a group of individual instruments all made to create different sounds. During practice, you can hear the different instruments playing individual parts with no concern for what others are playing. The sound is a lot of noise with literally no harmony. However, when the conductor comes in, the individual players stop practicing, and all focus on the conductor to play their individual parts in harmony or unity with the other instruments. The result is a symphony!
Jesus knew that the fulfillment of God’s purposes would require unity. He prayed for all believers that we might be one with our conductor, God, in John 17:20-23 as I mentioned earlier. Let me read what He said, “My prayer is not for them alone (referring to His present-day disciples).
I also pray for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
With unity, God’s power is released and multiplied among His people. Without it, we struggle in our meager attempts to accomplish His Will. Let me remind you what God said about unity in a group of people like ourselves. He said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” We have an opportunity to get into agreement and unity with God. Let us speak His Word over our circumstances and join His plan for our individual lives and the life of our church. Let us all play our individual parts in harmony with one another to create a heavenly symphony! AMEN!