How To Maintain Unity

No one can be long in a Christian organization without being brought face to face with the necessity that, in a community of God’s servants, the personal zeal and faith of its members must be accompanied by the ability to live together in harmony. The key to fellowship is seen to be the next most important acquirement to holy living and love for souls. It must be admitted that among Christian communities of every type, holding every varied emphasis of scriptural truth, zeal and knowledge far, far outrun the graces of dwelling together in unity, forbearing one another in love, and thinking no evil.

We ourselves were driven to this conviction some years back by our own failures, and what God has taught us on this subject we have ample opportunity of putting to the proof these past fifteen years in the rapid growth of our members from 40 to 375 and of our fields from 1 to 15. Here has been room enough for dissensions and division, nor have we been wholly free from them, in individual instances, and in one case on a young field; but on the whole we can only marvel at the heart-to-heart unity existing today between all fields and home bases, and between the workers on each field; which has made us only more sure that these principles of fellowship learned from God’s Word are true.

What then are they? First we must make this clear. Unity is not the first fundamental. Unity is the lubricant essential to the operation of the machine; yet it is neither the machinery nor the motive power. First, therefore, we must be sure of our engine before we consider its lubrication. Therefore, when we speak here of unity, we do not mean a unity without a doctrinal foundation, nor a unity which is made an end in itself with any sort of compromise to attain it. We mean the uniting of a section of God’s people, based upon the common faith once delivered to the saints, and, in our case, with the common objective of worldwide evangelization.

So, now to tackle our problem upon this understanding. We are a Christian organization, one in doctrine and one in general working methods. Within these limits unity is essential, yet seventy-five percent of our problems and calamities center around our failure to unite? What are the causes of disunity? In the vast majority of cases, they are the effect that the actions or attitude of a fellow-worker have on us. A coldness or neglect towards us is observed and felt, some habit or mannerism jars us, some apparently unspiritual behavior or method of work meets with our disapproval. Now there may well be real justification for this feeling, our judgment may be true, there may be real cause for concern. But here lies the secret.

Christ gave it. He said words to this effect, “When you are tempted to criticize or resent, turn your attention to yourself and leave your brother alone.” Recognize the beam of resentment and criticism in yourself; let the Holy Spirit deal with that, then you will be fitted to deal with your brother’s mote. For either you will cease to notice it and it will be swallowed up in your renewed vision of all there is of Christ in him, or you will recognize that your Lord, who tenderly removes your faults in His own way, is also his Lord, who will do the same for him without your interference; or, if in a rare case, you are led to speak, it will be more a word of confession of your resentment than rebuke for his failure.

In other words, the first great secret of maintaining unity is—the moment I am inclined to criticize or resent a brother, I must recognize my spirit of criticism as the sin which concerns me, and not my brother’s behavior; and I must keep on letting God deal with it till a spirit of appreciative love replaces it, by which I honor my brother instead of judging him, and rejoice in all of the image of Christ to be seen in him.

This is the out-working of what we often call “the victory of Calvary.” Even in problems of relationships, the way of life is through death, not only in ourselves but others; for on such occasions as these, when we make it our occupation to see that we abide in Christ’s death, the resurrection outcome is not merely the triumph of the spirit of love in our hearts, but also the conquest of Christ in our brother’s. We find ourselves empowered to claim the disappearance of the offending characteristic (if it is truly an offending thing); with ease we have assurance that God is doing it, and in due course we see the triumph of this miracle-working way of the Cross, this inheritance of the meek, for the offending thing disappears and is replaced by the graces of the Spirit, without the strain and distress of painful conflicts, bitterness of spirit, and often wrecked nerves and actual division.

From another angle we may say that the key to the maintenance of happy and easy relationships between co-workers is the same that unlocks the door to all our problems—faith, but this time towards man. The immediate problem then arises; how can we trust fallible men, or they us? We can love them—but how trust them? The solution of this problem is that we are to act towards our brethren as we do to ourselves. We do not trust ourselves, but we do trust Christ in us (Galatians 2:20); and as for ourselves apart from Him, although recognizing our many faults and fallibilities, we are quick to side with God in His long-suffering of us, and to comfort ourselves with the knowledge that He judges by the honest motive rather than the poor production.

Now let us go further and apply to the other members of the Body what we have applied to ourselves. Recognize Christ in them. Count on Christ in them. In so far as there is another nature observable in them, show them the same tolerance and sympathy as we do to ourselves. Believe that Christ is working Romans 6:11 in them also and that they are co-operating with Him. Reckon on the earnestness and sincerity of their great discipleship, as much as we desire them to reckon on ours. By so doing, we are effecting more than the maintenance of unity; by our faith we are building up our brethren in Christ, for, as we have already seen, faith is creative, just as, conversely, by our mistrust we help to pull down Christ’s edifice in them.

For the maintenance of unity, therefore, we have only to look in the same direction as for the solution of all other problems; not to the solving of a problem without us, in our brethren or circumstances, but within our own selves.