God’s Goal of Unity

The Godhead is a Reflection of Unity

Dt 6:4; Jn 17:22

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

John 17:22 ESV

The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,

See also Mk 12:29; Mk 12:32; Jn 1:1; Jn 17:11; Ga 3:20; 1 Jn 5:7

Sin Brings Alienation (disunity)

Alienation from God

Ge 3:8; Ge 3:23–24; Is 59:2; Eze 28:16; Jas 4:4

Genesis 3:8 ESV

And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:23–24 ESV

therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Isaiah 59:2 ESV

but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Ezekiel 28:16 ESV

In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

James 4:4 ESV

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Alienation from one another

Ge 4:7–9; Ge 4:23–24; Ge 6:11; Jas 4:1–2; Jud 19

Genesis 4:7–9 ESV

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

Genesis 4:23–24 ESV

Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”

Genesis 6:11 ESV

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.

James 4:1–2 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

Jude 19 ESV

It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

God’s Purpose in Unity

To bring together all peoples

Ps 133:1; Eph 1:9–10

Psalm 133:1 ESV

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

Ephesians 1:9–10 ESV

making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

To unite all peoples under his rule

Zechariah 14:9 ESV

And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.

See also Ge 49:10; Ps 72:8–11; Is 2:2–4; Jn 10:16; Php 2:9–11; Re 11:15

To unite all peoples in worship

Isaiah 19:23–25 ESV

In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”

See also Ps 86:9; Is 56:6–8; Zec 8:20–23; Zec 14:16; Mk 11:17; Re 15:4

To bring reconciliation between Jew and Gentile

Ephesians 2:11–19 ESV

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

See also Is 14:1; Ro 10:12; Ga 3:28; Col 3:11

To bring reconciliation among his people

Jeremiah 50:4 ESV

“In those days and in that time, declares the LORD, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek the LORD their God.

See also Is 11:10–13; Eze 37:21–24; Mic 2:12; Mt 5:24; Php 4:2

To reconcile humanity to himself

Colossians 1:19–22 ESV

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

See also Ro 5:10–11; 2 Co 5:18–19; Heb 10:19–20

How Unity Should be Expressed

Unity between husband and wife

Genesis 2:24 ESV

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

See also Mal 2:15; Mt 19:5–6; 1 Co 6:16; 1 Co 7:4; 1 Co 7:10–11

Marriage as an expression of unity between God and his people

Je 2:2; Eph 5:31–32

Jeremiah 2:2 ESV

“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

Ephesians 5:31–32 ESV

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

See also Is 54:5; Je 31:32; Ho 2:16; Jn 3:29; Re 19:7; Re 21:2; Re 21:9

Unity within the church

John 17:21 ESV

that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

See also Ac 2:1; Ac 4:32; 1 Co 1:10; 1 Co 10:17; 1 Co 12:12; Eph 4:13