How then does a church maintain unity in these kinds of situations? At the expense of oversimplifying, the answer is to love. Seriously. Think about the Corinthian church, arguably the most dis-unified, tribalized church known to the Apostles. How does Paul address them? What imperatives does he apply out of the Gospel message? “Pursue love” (1 Corinthians 14:1). Why? Because out of all the things a church needs to be a healthy, unified church – faith, hope, and love – the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

The Psalmist certainly professes a great truth when he remarks “how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.” But if we’re honest, this passage can often sound like an unattainable rhetorical ideal; not a commonly celebrated experience. Perfect unity within the body of Christ has got to be a reality relegated to future glory because why else would Paul constantly urge and command his Christian readers to “walk… 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). The commands are there because the intended reality is absent.

So when it comes to life together within a local church, what does it actually look like to bear with one another in love? In my own church I’ve had to think through this command a lot. We’re a church where, by God’s grace, a wide spectrum of our surrounding community is well represented. One of the ways this plays out is that we have as members brothers and sisters from all over the political spectrum. We’re a diverse group in many ways, but I’ve found that it’s the political diversity which strains our unity muscles more than anything else. On any given Sunday you can witness a Trump supporter sitting next to and singing psalms and hymns alongside a young African-American girl wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt.

In one sense, this broad spectrum of different people coming together to love one another and commit their lives to each other in Christ is a testimony to the power of the Gospel. Here is a witness to someone who in his claim upon our lives, powerfully binds together what in the world should be torn asunder. And of course, the indicative of the Gospel always evidences itself in the imperatives of its demands. In the local church these imperatives become supernatural bonds of unity in what would otherwise be a natural divorce.

How then does a church maintain unity in these kinds of situations? At the expense of oversimplifying, the answer is to love. Seriously. Think about the Corinthian church, arguably the most dis-unified, tribalized church known to the Apostles. How does Paul address them? What imperatives does he apply out of the Gospel message? “Pursue love” (1 Corinthians 14:1). Why? Because out of all the things a church needs to be a healthy, unified church – faith, hope, and love – the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

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