AUGUST 11: “When unity turns God against the Church”

The significance and power of unity in the church cannot be over-emphasized. However, there is a time when unity turns God against people, particularly, the church. In today’s devotional passage, Luke records the conspiracy of the Jews against Apostle Paul during one of his missionary journeys. The bible says that, “… some of the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.” Think of this for a moment; a group of people decided to “fast,” not because they are praying, not to worship God, not to seek the face of God, but to do evil – to kill.

In Genesis 11, the whole earth united together to build a great tower, which is commendable, but their motive was wrong. Their unity was wrong for two reasons; first, while God wanted them to spread all over the earth, they decided to stay together as a people, which was against God’s will. Secondly, the reason for their unity was to make a name for themselves (Verse 4). For these two reasons, God turned against them, over what was supposed to be a commendable effort, and they were scattered (Genesis 11:8).

You see, whenever a group of people in the church or the entire church unites to do evil, it turns the God of the church against them. Under normal circumstances, unity attracts the presence of God, but when unity is for the purpose of doing evil, it brings the judgement of God against the people. Beloved, let us unite only for good. Let us unite for the right reasons, and the God of unity will bless His church.

PRAYER: pray that the church unites to do God’s will.