When each individual has the purpose to subject themselves one to another and to follow the role that God has deemed best for them, harmony, blessing, and victory are the results.

It is God’s desire that His followers, or the “body of Christ,” functions together in unity and oneness. The Apostle Paul alluded to this when he wrote to the believers at Corinth, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many” (1 Corinthians 12:13-14). It is a wonderful blessing when our physical bodies work properly. It is a greater blessing when the body of Christ is in perfect harmony.

The church at Corinth had some challenges in this regard. For one thing, we observe that they had favorite preachers. Some preferred Apollos, who seemingly was a dynamic, eloquent, and bold speaker. Others looked to Peter—perhaps it was Peter’s very human quality that drew people to him. Then there was Paul himself, the one who had brought the Gospel to these people.

None of these three men would have countenanced any strife or contention in the church at Corinth. Peter spoke affectionately of his beloved brother Paul, though he confessed that some of his writings were a bit hard for novices to understand. Paul and Apollos worked together. So these three were not rivals; they were partners. Paul told the Corinthians that he planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase, and concluded by saying, “we are labourers together with God” (1 Corinthians 3:9). Each one of these men had a different role but they were all determined to follow the same Gospel.

That is the attitude we need as a body of believers. We want to work together with the same goal: to see the pure Gospel continue to go out to the entire world. We are all watering what those before us planted. None of us can take credit for any good thing that God is doing—we are just upholding what was delivered unto us. We want to be faithful to continue to do that, for as we do, we know God will continue to bless.

In 1 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul speaks of the different abilities given to those in the body of Christ. God endows each of us with certain strengths that He draws upon to see His plan accomplished. Your strengths are one; your neighbor’s are another.   Paul speaks of different members of the physical body. He specifically mentions the foot, hand, ear, and eye, but clearly there are more than four components to the physical body. So it is in the church: there are many more components than those named, and every role has great value. Whatever our role may be in the body of Christ, it is vital, and together we make up the whole.

God assigns the roles. He sets the members into the body, “as it hath pleased him” (1 Corinthians 12:18). Our job is simply to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God, making ourselves available for God to use. As we do that, God can place us in the body, as He deems best.

It is as a unit that we are strong. When one component of the body of Christ is not working as it should, the body as a whole must learn to compensate. It adjusts so that more weight falls in another area. Thus, when one suffers, we all suffer. We are not independent; we are interdependent. Our strength is in unity, so we want God to bind us together in oneness of heart that He may be able to work among us and have His way with us.

In verse 25, Paul indicates that there should be no “schism” or division in the church. He is not referring to those who depart from the church, but to a division within the church body itself. In Ephesians 4:1-3, Paul admonished the believers to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Unity of the Spirit does not just happen. The word endeavor means “to intensely labor; to spare no effort.” It requires working together with a determined purpose and diligence. That is the beauty of this Gospel—observing those who have served the Lord in the same church for decade after decade and are still rejoicing, loving each other, and working together in harmony.

The unity of the Apostolic Faith Church is one of its distinguishing marks. When you attend an Apostolic Faith Church anywhere in the world, you find unity not only in doctrine but also in practice. We strive to have this unity because we know that where it exists, God blesses. It has not come without effort by those who preceded us. Challenges come along. It is the devil’s job to disrupt harmony; we have to “endeavor” to keep it.

Sometimes a rift in unity is caused when we focus on the weak points of one another. Some of the frustrations we encounter are simply the result of unrealistic expectations. God is still working on us, so we should not expect our brother to be “finished.” We are works in progress, and we need to allow that to be the case in others. That is where lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, and forbearance come in. It helps to have these attributes in our lives in this endeavoring process.

Sometimes people give up too easily instead of striving to preserve unity. I have heard it said, “We’ll agree to disagree.” That is too easy! How can we justify walking in conflict when God’s Word says that as much as possible we are to live peaceably with all men? Most of the time it is possible to live victoriously and in harmony with each other. We may not all have the same perspective, but we are in oneness of Spirit.

We must protect ourselves from disharmony. In Romans 16:17-19, Paul gave instructions on how to deal with people who disrupt unity, saying believers were to “mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” In 2 Thessalonians 3:6, he says to “withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.”   We have received sound doctrine and sound practices of holiness in serving God, so we must not let someone cause doubts or confusion in our minds about what God has done for us.

A person must learn to follow before he can lead. If someone comes along to disrupt harmony, it is likely that person never learned to follow. You certainly do not want to follow their lead! God’s Word teaches, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls” (Hebrews 13:17). We want to honor those who are over us and ask God to help us to subject ourselves to those He has placed over us--to be subject so that we might receive the blessing of God!

In addition to obeying your spiritual leaders, it is important for you to support the peers you work shoulder to shoulder with in your church. Yes, differences may come along. They might fall short of your expectations a time or two along the line, but give them the benefit of the doubt and stand up for them! God will soon let that problem pass and you will be working together a decade from now if Jesus tarries.

Psalm 133:1 says, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” I have three brothers. As kids, we played baseball together; we played basketball together; we played football together. We thought the four of us could beat any other brothers in the neighborhood! And we could, because there were no other foursomes in the neighborhood. My brother Dayle and I perfected the old drop-back play in football. We fooled more people with that and we knew we could beat anybody—but it required unity. That was important to our maneuvers on the ball field, but how much more important it is in the Gospel of the Jesus Christ!

The results of working together are significant. Deuteronomy 32:30 refers to one chasing a thousand, and two putting ten thousand to flight. Look what two people working in harmony can accomplish!  

In John 17 we find Jesus’ prayer that the disciples might be one as He is one with the Father. That prayer was answered. When the disciples were assembled together in the upper room, we read that they all continued “with one accord in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14). And when the day of Pentecost came, they were all “in one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1). They were in harmony, in unity of spirit, and oh, what God could do for them when they were unified!

When each individual has the purpose to subject themselves one to another and to follow the role that God has deemed best for them, harmony, blessing, and victory are the results. Let us commit ourselves to endeavor together to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Darrel Lee is Superintendent General of the Apostolic Faith Church and pastor of the headquarters church in Portland, Oregon.