Church Unity & Spiritual Warfare
In my recent Sunday message on Ephesians, I made the point that there is a direct connection between spiritual warfare and unity in the church. I have been reading Philippians this week and I find Paul making this same point about the importance of unity:
“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.”
Note Paul’s exhortation - “stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one…” Here we see again, like Ephesians, Paul’s emphasis on being “one”. There is “one Spirit” and therefore “one people”. This ‘oneness’ Paul refers to is not meant to be some abstract or hypothetical togetherness we imagine that will just happen sometime in the future, but rather, it is a unity we are meant to experience now - in the present-day, with each other.
Paul continues by saying, if we are unified “as one” there is no need to be “frightened in any way by those who oppose you”, but rather, this is a “sign to them [our spiritual enemies] that they will be destroyed, but that you [the church] will be saved”. Like Ephesians, Paul is stating a very important spiritual reality – church unity is the key to spiritual warfare [Thank you to my friend Rev Dr David Chotka for this insight into this theme within Ephesians].
Therefore, unity in the church is not optional, but necessary. It literally determines whether we overcome or are defeated by the devil. Indeed, our unity as a church, is a sign to our spiritual enemies that they are defeated already – we win and they lose! Praise the Lord Jesus!
Why is this? Because the Spirit of God - the power that defeats our spiritual enemies - dwells in the midst of his unified people. You see this all through the Bible. God visits his people when they are unified around him, and he departs then they are disunified or scattered. Therefore, when the church is united, it attracts God's power; when the church is divided or becomes fragmented, God power is repelled. How much do we need to guard and protect the unity of the church!
Unity is an invitation to the Spirit of the Lord to dwell among us. However, we should not be spiritually naive. Peter says, “Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour” (1 Peter 5:8, CSB). It is a strategy of the devil to lull us into being complacent, neglectful or to disregard the importance of church unity. Disunity is not spiritually neutral, it is an invitation to the enemy to dwell among us.
One last point about this verse 27. Paul exhorts us to “stand firm in the one [Holy] Spirit”, but also to “strive together as one”. Suzi shared recently in our weekly prayer meeting; she once had a vision many years ago about this type of church unity. She saw in the vision people walking together arm-in-arm. Because of this togetherness, the devil couldn’t penetrate them. This vision accurately reflects the meaning of this phrase in the original Greek text - “strive together as one”. This phrase in the original language of the text carries the sense of ‘engaging side by side’ [1]. It is no accident that Paul puts these these two phrases together. Church unity is not passive but active. It is actively engaging side-by-side as if we were one person with the Holy Spirit for the Gospel. When we do this, our unity becomes an impenetrable force!
What does this unity in the Spirit look like? Here are a few examples:
We pray together for what the Holy Spirit leads us to pray. Spiritual unity is always with our Lord Jesus and his Kingdom at the centre of our prayers;
We cultivate Godly character qualities in our relationships with one another that draws us closer together. Qualities like love, humility, integrity, honesty, transparency, honour and service;
We are diligent to safeguard unity within our relationships by addressing things that undermine it, like unforgiveness, dishonesty, lack of respect, gossip, selfishness and pride.
The Lord is doing some good things among us in this season! Be intentional about cultivating more and more unity and vigilant not to become complacent. The enemy is always looking for a way to disrupt what God is doing.
[1] Fee, G. D. (1995). Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (p. 166). Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
