Introduction
We are continuing the theme Rooted in Love, and today we want to pause on a word that Jesus carried at the heart of his final prayer: unity. There is power in unity. There is power in what God wants to do in us when we stop walking alone. But before we talk about the unity of the Church, we need to talk about what comes before it: intimacy with God.
Sometimes God asks us to fight with our arms, other times he asks us to fight on our knees. When our knees touch the ground, our heart connects to heaven. Everything starts there. From intimacy comes authority, from intimacy comes power, and from intimacy comes unity. That is why the text that ties this whole journey together is Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4: "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:1-3).
Article outline
- Fragile things and the unity that breaks little by little
- The orchestra: a symphony of different gifts
- Maintaining unity, not creating it
- Humility, gentleness, patience: the ingredients of unity
- Antioch: the multicolored church that becomes missionary
- The love that does not turn differences into conflict
- From intimacy to mission
1. Fragile things and the unity that breaks little by little
There are many fragile things in today's world, things that break easily. A glass dropped on the floor shatters right away. A plate slips from your hand and it breaks. But there are other things that do not break like that, all at once: it takes time before they are shattered. One of them is trust. Another is the love we can have for one another. Another still is friendship. They are not broken in a single instant: there is a process, driven by our hearts, by our silences, by the bitterness that comes out of our hearts. We end up killing them little by little. We do not kill them all at once, but we wear them down, day after day.
And one of the dynamics we often kill little by little is precisely unity. Unity is not broken overnight. Unity is broken by hearts that fail to connect to the love of God. That is why it is important for us to pause: Jesus prayed for the unity of the Church, and there is a power in unity that the world cannot see when we are divided.
2. The orchestra: a symphony of different gifts
When you think of unity, try to picture an orchestra: many instruments, many voices, and all of them together, in their particularity, in their gift, in their own way of doing things, manage to create something extraordinary. Men and women reaching a goal together. Different instruments. There is that little flute that looks like a toy, seemingly unimportant, because sometimes what we have, what God has given us, seems unimportant to us. It seems like no one wants to hear it. And yet, when you put it in the right hands, among the right people, all of it carries a sound, bears fruit, carries a feeling, carries emotions.
That is the Church. If we come together and each one plays their own instrument, each one sings their own song, each one gives what God has placed in their heart (their own gifts, their own talents) and puts it at the service of the Church, then it will truly be a melody. And people will be drawn in, they will see, they will laugh, they will even cry, because they see that it is real. They see that the Church is not just an institution. They see that there are real people, with a past, a present, emotions, mistrust, doubts, convictions, but who, together, with their limitations, can be strong.
Someone who is not able to speak can do something else: they can draw, they can run the projector, they can handle the lights, they can play an instrument. Someone who cannot play can welcome people at the door. Everyone has something God has given them. Maybe today you do not fully know what he has given you, but if he gave it to you, that gift will help you build unity in the Church. It is not to show how gifted you are: it is to build unity. And when that unity is born from gifts put together, the world will see that there is a God who holds control over everything and who knows how to carry a symphony within his Church.
3. Maintaining unity, not creating it
Paul, writing to the Ephesians, does not tell you to create unity. He tells you to maintain it. And the difference is huge. If your task were to create unity, you would have to invent it, produce it, build it from nothing. But you cannot. Unity is something God created, Jesus created it on the cross. Now it is up to you to maintain it: in your family, in your marriage, in the Church, in the workplace.
When my knees bend and touch the ground, and my heart connects to heaven, I am not inventing anything. I am not inventing anything of heaven to bring down to earth, because it all already exists. God has created everything. Every revelation that can reach us today is already written in the heavens. We do not invent it: we simply take what already exists in heaven and carry it to earth. That is where revelation happens, that is where what God has planned for your life can happen. If we do not touch the ground with our knees, we will never be able to receive in intimacy what God has prepared for us.
If Paul tells you to strive to maintain unity, that means it is not automatic. It is neither easy nor obvious. We will fall, and we will fall again. But we can come back, every time, and live out the unity God has planned for each one of us.
4. Humility, gentleness, patience: the ingredients of unity
Paul, in Ephesians 4, lists three words in a row. Three ingredients you can write down, three words to remember when you wonder what it means to live in unity: humility, gentleness, patience.
Humility is when you declare that someone else is greater than you. Simply put: declaring that the other person is greater than you, declaring that God is greater than you. That is where your humility lies. Gentleness is the ability to respond without aggression. When someone hurts you and you want to react, you respond with the peace of God, with the love of God, not with aggression. That is gentleness, and it is an essential element for maintaining unity. Patience is giving others time to grow. We often want everyone to become like us in our own growth, but it is precisely that complementarity that creates the richness found in the Church. The fact that we are different puts pressure on unity, yes, but it also brings a greater revelation. It is because we are different that the world sees that we are united, and understands that we are not a club, not a sports club: we are united because we are in Christ.
5. Antioch: the multicolored church that becomes missionary
If you want to see a concrete example, look at the church of Antioch. Antioch is the missionary church par excellence: a church that gave birth to many others. And who was there? The Bible (Acts 13:1) lists them: there was Barnabas, a Levite from Cyprus; there was Simeon, called Niger; there was Lucius, who appears to have been African; there was Manaen, brought up with Herod the tetrarch, someone with a noble background, who knew how to move within a palace; and there was Saul of Tarsus, with that rough character he was known for, the man who, before his conversion, killed Christians in God's name.
Very different people. And yet God put them all together in one church to work. And from that church were born other communities, other churches, that we read about today in the Word. They did not look at their past, they did not look at where they came from, they did not look too closely at their character: they came together in unity. Today, that might be a church made up of South Americans, Africans, German-speaking Swiss, Calabrians, all different people. They decided to work for God with a single language: the language of faith, of proclamation, of hope, of love. That is where the missionary church was born. And that is what we long for: to be a church that goes out, that plants, that carries the kingdom of God elsewhere, not a church that stays locked within its walls.
6. The love that does not turn differences into conflict
Paul adds: bearing with one another in love. In love means that the love of God ensures our imperfections do not destroy communion. We are all imperfect. But when I look at my neighbor, and when you look at me in my imperfection with the love of God, that gaze does not allow unity to be destroyed, because we see our neighbor through the eyes of Christ.
Love decides not to turn every difference into conflict, because it is often precisely differences that give rise to conflict. This is true between parents and children, in marriage, in family. Love decides that our differences will not become a wall. In 1 Corinthians 13, we read that love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not seek its own, it bears all things. When you understand that it is the love of God that allows you to live in unity, living together should become simple. And yet it takes effort, because the flesh pushes you to turn back. Love decides to stay. Love decides not to run away. Love, sometimes, even decides to be silent.
The foundation of unity, Paul says, is not emotional: it is not that today I want to be united and tomorrow I do not. The foundation is theological. It is founded on the person of Jesus Christ. One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father (Ephesians 4:4-6). When you build on this one, with Jesus Christ at the center, you can maintain unity, because no one can shake it.
7. From intimacy to mission
Do not let your personal preferences become walls: "I prefer this age group," "I prefer this population." That is where division lies. The Church is multicultural, multigenerational, made up of people from zero to a hundred years old. Seek to clarify before you judge, and be the one who takes the first step toward reconciliation. What the Holy Spirit is asking of you today is not some monstrous thing: he is simply asking whether you are maintaining the unity of Christ around you. Whether the way you speak, look, touch, act, maintains unity or brings division.
It is through unity that the world will see, through the love of Christ among us, that God truly exists, that he truly is love, that he forgives, that he saves. We carry a great responsibility. We do not have to become light of the world: Jesus says that we are the light of the world, that we are the salt of the earth. With that awareness, we know that we can help the world come to know God.
And the final question is this: do I maintain unity because of the calling I have in Jesus Christ? When I open the door to Christ and enter as a child of God, how do I behave when no one is watching? These are important questions, but the conclusion is simple: a strong church comes through a united church, and a united church comes through a church living in intimacy. We all long to live eternity with God. But why do we struggle so much, today, to spend fifteen minutes with him? Time is not the real problem: it is quality. And that quality, as it grows, moves you from intimacy to unity, and from unity to mission.
Key takeaways
- Fragile things break all at once; unity breaks little by little, through silences and bitterness. It must be preserved every day.
- Unity is not created, it is maintained (Ephesians 4:3). Jesus created it on the cross; it is up to you to preserve it.
- Humility, gentleness, patience: the concrete ingredients of unity.
- Differences are not an obstacle to unity, but the place where it becomes more visible and more credible.
- Unity in the Church is born from intimacy with God, and mission is born from unity.
Personal application
- Is there a unity in your life today that you are letting wear away little by little (a silence, a grudge, a bitterness) instead of preserving it?
- With whom, in your family or at church, could you take the first step toward reconciliation today, without waiting for the other person to move first?
- What gift seems "unimportant" to you, one you are not putting to use in the Church, even though it could bear fruit in the right hands?
- How many minutes a day do you truly spend with God in intimacy? What quality is growing in that time?
- In what area of your life (family, marriage, church, work) is the Spirit asking you for humility, gentleness, or patience in this season?
Verses cited
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between creating unity and maintaining it?
Creating means producing something that does not exist. Maintaining means keeping something that already exists. The Bible says clearly in Ephesians 4:3 to maintain the unity of the Spirit, not to create it. Unity was created by Jesus on the cross, reconciling humanity with God and believers with one another. It is up to you to preserve it every day with humility, gentleness, patience, and love.
Why are differences among believers so important for unity?
Because it is precisely when we are different, in age, culture, character, background, that the world understands we are not united by a common interest or by a club, but by Christ. Antioch shows this: a Levite from Cyprus, an African, a man raised at court, a former persecutor become one church, and that is where the first great mission begins (Acts 13). Complementarity does not weaken unity: it makes it visible.
What should I do, concretely, when my unity with someone has already been wounded?
Begin with intimacy with God: bend your knees and connect your heart to heaven, for that is where you receive what you need. Then choose to take the first step toward reconciliation yourself: seek to clarify before you judge, respond with gentleness rather than aggression, give the other person time to grow. Remember that love decides to stay, decides not to run away, sometimes even decides to be silent, because the foundation of unity is not emotional, it is the person of Jesus Christ.
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