PERFECTING UNITY
(week 26/11)
Olubi Johnson
Romans 15:5-6 MKJV: And may the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus, (6) so that with one mind and one mouth you may glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here the Holy Spirit through Paul tells us to have one mind and one mouth so we may glorify God.
What does this mean practically?
It means that perfecting unity in a body of Christians will ultimately cause the glory of God to be made manifest.
Now it is instructive to note that there are 3 levels of unity in the body of Christ:
1. Unity of the faith (Eph. 4.5).
2. Unity of the Spirit (Eph. 4.3).
3. Unity of the knowledge of perfection and fullness of Christ (Eph. 4.13).
Now as born-again Christians, we already have the unity of the faith: we all believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
What we need now, as Paul has told us in the above scripture, is to perfect the unity of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit re-echoes this same thought in
1Corinthians 1:10 MKJV: But I exhort you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
The perfection of the unity of the Spirit is a condition in which there is a free flow of life between the members of a group of Christians. In other words, there is no retained sin (Jn. 20:23) caused by un-forgiveness or strife amongst them that is hindering partially or completely the flow of the life of God from any one member to another.
Ephesians 4:16 MKJV: from whom the whole body, fitted together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of each part, producing the growth of the body to the edifying of itself in love.
This unity of the Spirit is attained and maintained by a diligent walk in love by members of the body through washing of feet: regular forgiveness and so confession and cleansing of sin; asking for life for one another and praying in the Spirit.
1John 5:16 MKJV: If anyone sees his brother sin a sin not to death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for those that do not sin to death. There is a sin to death, I do not say that he shall pray for it.
Ephesians 6:18 MKJV: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching to this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
As this condition is attained and maintained, the consequent flow of a great measure of the life of God between the members of this group of Christians will cause all their minds to be enlightened (Eph. 4:18) with the same light of life (Jn. 8:12) so causing them to have the same mind and judgment: the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
In other words, each member of a group of Christians that is perfecting the unity of the Spirit will have the same mind the Lord Jesus has and consequently the same mind God the Father and God the Holy Spirit have, fulfilling:
John 17:21-23 MKJV: that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. (22) And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one, (23) I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.
It is clear that the whole body of Christ will not experience this all at the same time; so God is presently working on small groups of Christians of the order of 300-600 (typified by Gideon’s army of 300 (Judg.7:7) and David’s army of 600 (1 Sam. 30:9)) to perfect this unity in and amongst them.
As these groups or ‘breaker companies’ perfect the unity of the Spirit amongst themselves, they will ‘break through’ (Mic. 2:13) into the manifestation of the glory of God and the rest of the body of Christ will begin to copy their example so that the answer to the Lord Jesus’ prayer for the perfection of the unity of the Church will be experienced in this hour!
