“I have never yet known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord’s people were divided.” Like D.L. Moody, neither have I. Most of us in the church have witnessed too often how disunity hinders the Spirit’s work in the church and damages the church’s witness to the world.

Unity in the body of Christ isn’t something to be taken for granted nor taken lightly. It is a gift from God made possible by the cross of Jesus and made effective by the working of His Spirit. Unity isn’t something we create but is our responsibility to guard.

Here are a few unity-destroyers we need to guard against:

1. Making everything about you

The church doesn’t exist to make you, or me, happy; it exists for the purposes of God.

Maintaining unity requires us to think of others as more important than ourselves and to make the mission of seeing lives changed by the gospel as more important than our personal preferences or comfort. 

2. Fighting over secondary things

We argue and divide over things that, from an eternal perspective, aren’t that important.

Like #1 above, arguing over secondary things is an indication of self-centeredness. What’s required for maintaining unity is less “self” and more “centeredness” on what really matters. 

3. Gossiping

James had a good reason for describing the tongue as a fire (James 3:6). Careless words do great damage in a church. Gossip is a cancer in the body of Christ that destroys fellowship and derails mission.

The problem of gossip is a problem of the heart. And because the problem is in the heart, the solution must reach the heart as well. A heart problem isn’t corrected by a resolve to hold your tongue. We need a work of the Holy Spirit to transform our attitudes, bring us to genuine repentance, and restore the unity God desires for the body of Christ.

4. Refusing to forgive

Spurgeon said, “Let it never be said in a Christian church, that fellow-members bear a grudge against one another.”

Bitterness and resentment are toxic. Unforgiveness not only poisons the soul of the person who harbors it but also damages the unity and fellowship of the body of Christ.

5. Taking our eyes off Jesus

In The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer wrote: “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So, one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

It’s time we get in tune, don’t you think?