'HOW GOOD IT IS TO LIVE IN UNITY'

Psalm 133:1 (ESV) Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

Unity is hard to acheive and even harder to maintain.  Unity can be present one minute and totally destroyed the next.  And even if you try your absolute best to maintain unity, you can only do your part.  Someone else can help you protect the unity in your group or destroy it based upon their attitudes and actions.

I have taught for years that the three key words to being a blessed follower of Jesus are FOCUS, BALANCE and MOTIVE.  These three words can help you understand so many Biblical principles just by asking questions like:
1)  Am I focusing on God or on myself?
2)  Do I have the right balance in my life in this area?
3)  Are my motives pure or self-gratifying?

So when it comes to unity, you can use these three key words like this:
1)  Am I focusing on protecting the unity in our group or am I only focusing on what I want to do?
2)  Do I have the right balance in my life as far as when to go along with the group and when to act as an individual?
3)  What is my motive right now concerning the unity in our group?  Am I trying to protect it so I look good?  Am I going against the grain so that I will get some attention?

It is not hard to spot someone who is not protecting the unity of their group.  It's the person who has started focusing on themselves, the person whose life is totally out of balance and the person whose motives are definitely self-gratifying.

John 17:20-21 (ESV) “I do not ask for these only, 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.

John 17 shows us a prayer that Jesus prayed in which He asked God to make us one just like He and God are One.  And notice in verse 21 the reason for this request... so that the world may believe that God has sent Jesus!

Every time that you promote unity in Christ, you are proving to the world that God sent Jesus but every time you try to destroy the unity in your group, you are denying that God sent Jesus.

Titus 3:10-11 (ESV) As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,
knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

Attacking the unity of your group is a serious sin in the eyes of God.  Titus 3 says that we are to warn them once, warn them again, and then if that doesn't work, take them out of the group.  Why?  Because that person is 'warped and sinful; he is self-condemned'.

So please be very careful how you live.  Make all efforts to keep the unity in your group and watch out for those who try to destroy it.  Pray for them but also confront them.  Titus 3:10 says to 'warn them'.