On Earth as it is in Heaven

Psalm 133 and the Unity of God's People

Our scripture this morning is Psalm 133. If you turn to there, in your Bibles please, Psalm 133, you will find there a short three verse Psalm, a short but beautiful Psalm, pregnant with meaning and pregnant with applications to us.

Three verses concerning this topic which Pastor Owens and I have been bringing to you since October 4th. This being the final in this series on unity, the 12th sermon. And as we go through this Psalm, we're going to find God's perspective on the subject that we've been in for so long, for these past three months, these 12 sermons, which is the unity of God's people.

The Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And here in Psalm 133 is God's will from heaven regarding this subject of unity. What God would see on earth as he looks down upon his son Jesus Christ's blood-bought children.

The unity of the church. So please stand once again in honor of God's word. Psalm 133. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes.

It is like the dew of Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore. Amen. Please be seated. Well, the Psalm is attributed to David, Israel's poet.

He may have written this, many commentators believe, when he was recognized as king by the house of King Saul, his predecessor. And thus by that unity of the peoples of Israel, a civil war was avoided.

And he may then have sat down and in gratitude to God, written this Psalm about the beauty that God sees in the unity of his people. Psalm 133 is the next to last of the 15 so-called pilgrim songs. Those 15 songs or songs that were sung by Israel as they journeyed through Jerusalem for one of the three feasts where every male was required to present himself.

A song that encouraged them along the way, along the journey to Jerusalem, reminding them of their unity with each other as Israelites together traveling the same road, to the same place, facing the same dangers, and all determined to arrive in the same place, which is Jerusalem.

And their Lord willing received the same blessing of the Lord. They'd be reminded they walked and sang these psalms, and particularly this psalm that is our attention this morning, Psalm 133, of how precious their unity was, and most especially how precious their unity was and is to God.

They're fortified as they look towards the temple where they would arrive together. Then they would stand outside the temple in the courtyard, waiting for the high priest to come out and bless them, certifying that the Lord had accepted the sacrifice for their sins and that their sins had been atoned for once again.

Derek Kidner says here, the psalm is surely singing, as most versions have taken it, to be of living up to this ideal, giving depth and reality to this one emphasized word, unity. We've come to this psalm, and we will, God willing, gain God's perspective on this unity.

As we pray so often from the Lord's Prayer, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In order to do his will here on earth, we need to have the perspective of heaven. We need to know what heaven thinks, what God would have to see in our unity together.

We need to have his perspective. We have three verses here with a lifetime of truth, the first verse telling us of how good unity is, the second verse giving us two similes, two comparisons to gain our understanding, to increase our understanding of what this unity is to be like, and finally in verse 3, God pronouncing his blessing upon a united people.

We need to gain God's perspective. Is not perspective important? In order to do the will of some superior, you have to have the perspective, the outlook of that superior. I saw my brother once with his son, Alex, when Alex was three or four years old, and Alex had this habit of knocking down these curators, these little statues in the house that his mother, Linda, was collecting.

And my brother would get frustrated with him, and one time he says, Alex, can't you see? And he stopped himself. And he got down on his hands and knees, and he put his eyes at about the level where Alex's were, and he looked around, and he says, well, no, you can't, can you?

You don't see what I keep telling you to be careful about. It's out of your perspective. And once Alex had Phil's perspective, he picked him up and gave him his perspective, and Alex was able to look down and see what was on that table that he was always knocking down.

He was able to comply with my brother's orders to stop knocking these things down. We need the perspective of the one we are trying to obey. We need to have God's perspective on this unity. Conley and I have been preaching, we've been kind of tag-teaming from this pulpit through 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2, preaching God's word about unity in the church and how important it is.

Conley spoke about the mind of Christ, which is yours, and how that mind of Christ is one of unity together. How important it is that we come as a people unified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and as one calling out his praises.

And now, I have the blessing of finishing this series in Psalm 133, which is, if we can have one favorite Psalm from the wonderful Psalter, it is my favorite. I refer to it so often. God's perspective.

And God willing, by the time we are done this morning, your perspective. To see how important and how beautiful the unity that Jesus Christ procured for us when he went to the cross and died for our sins.

And how beautiful and important that unity is and must be to us. We pray that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Here is God's will. Here is God's perspective. We begin with verse 1, which says simply, Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.

The Goodness and Pleasantness of Brotherly Unity

True unity is a remarkable thing. It's remarkable in its obvious quality. It needs no exaggeration or superlatives. And he simply says, Behold how good and how pleasant it is. We're going to stop for a moment.

We're going to look at these words. Because each one of them has some importance to us and gains us this perspective that God would have. Behold calls attention to something that is remarkable. Something remarkable.

You're expected to stop and take notice. The word in Hebrew is henei. Henei means behold. It's used over a thousand times in the Bible. So we're not even going to take the smallest of surveys of it. But it means to stop.

It means to take notice. It means to really look carefully at something. Today we might say to a child, Hold still. I want you to stop wiggling all over the place. I want you to look at me. I want you to behold and pay attention.

I want you to stop. Behold. This word is the word that was used in the telling of Pharaoh's dreams. And behold, after them sprouted seven years of good corn. So something important had happened in that prophetic dream.

In Exodus chapter 3 verse 9, the Lord says to Moses, And now behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Not just that he's noticed. More than saying he's aware of something. But behold is an exclamation signaling something very important.

Psalm 121 verse 4 says, Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither sleep nor slumber. Pay attention. Notice this. Count on it. It's important to know that this God who keeps you will never sleep nor slumber.

Behold. Now it's said sometimes that every heartbeat is a miracle. You ever heard that expression? Every heartbeat is a miracle. It is something then, if it's a miracle, it's something to behold, isn't it?

How many of us have actually seen a miracle in person? Would you not stop and behold it? Would you not let your jaw drop just a little bit? Well, every heartbeat is a miracle. Think about that a moment.

I looked this up and I read that a heartbeat beats something like 100 ,000 times a day. 35 million times a year. And maybe, if the Lord gives us that many years, some 2 .5 billion times in a lifetime.

Now, if each heartbeat is a miracle, then we should say 100 ,000 times a day something like, Behold, my next heartbeat is about to occur. And then behold, it happened. And behold, another miracle is about a fraction of a second away.

But we don't do that. Because behold brings our attention to something that is really unique. Something that is surprising. Something that is profound. Behold, how good and pleasant. So our attention is called to something that doesn't occur 100 ,000 times, or 10 ,000 times, or even 1 ,000 times a day.

A month. Or even in a year. It calls our attention to something that might occur a few times in your life. And what is that? Unitedness. Oneness. Singleness in purpose. A unity that differs from any other because the object and the creator of this unity is not us gathering together as a club, as a social gathering.

We're not the Elks Lodge. We're not Kiwanis. We're God's church. And so the unity we have differs from any other because it's created by the Lord. It's empowered by the Spirit of God. And the object of this unity is none other than Jesus Christ, our Lord.

He's the object of true unity. He is the maker of true unity. Not something to pass by like busy shoppers streaming past merchandise displays. When this sort of unity happens, it should stop us in our tracks.

It's so good a thing that the scripture says, Behold, and stop and think about how good and pleasant it is. Have you ever known this kind of unity? Have you ever been in a church where people come together and there's that excitement that just sort of organically generates itself?

And it just grows. And we encourage one another to grow in the Lord. We're confessing our sins to one another. We're active in evangelism. You can feel the church. We just have an excitement about it.

And we are all together. We're of one mind and one accord because of the one faith, one Lord, one baptism. And all those ones, all those unitednesses that God brings to us. It's exciting. And you remember it.

And it's something you look back upon wistfully. So it's not like a heartbeat 100 ,000 times a day. Behold, behold, behold, behold. No, I remember that time. And we come to church excited. And we were anxious to hear the Word preached.

We were anxious to hear the Word and let it into our hearts. And we're anxious to all grow together. And we had excitement in evangelism. We're doing ministry together. It's the kind of thing that makes you just want to stop and say, And look back upon it and realize what a gift from God it is.

Well, a heartbeat may not be a miracle because of how often they happen. But certainly the heart itself. We can thank God for that in a behold kind of way that He gave us life. And how do we appreciate those heartbeats?

I think you appreciate them more when the doctor comes to you and says, you know, the next heartbeat may be more at risk than the one you just had because of whatever condition. And so when something is being taken away or is at risk of being taken away, we appreciate what we had, appreciate now.

Behold now the unity that the church has. Not something we generate. Not something Pastor Owens and I have been able to give to you. Something we've been proclaiming that God says He has given. We have unity.

It is ours. Behold and appreciate it. Behold and stop and take notice of it. Behold and let this be the unity and the excitement that we have that 10 years from now you might look back upon wistfully.

Let this be when you stop and behold. You know the old song, you don't know what you've got till it's gone. The kind of unity God's people have with each other because of our union with Christ is a gift of unbelievable proportions.

The Pilgrim's songs were written for this very purpose, to keep them all on the same road, to encourage each other through the same difficulties, to remind each other that once they had gotten to their destination, the hardships would soon be forgotten, the way dreams dissipate when the sun rises.

Because then they would hear the blessing of God. Then they would see that God did indeed bring them along that road together. This is the kind of unity that this wonderful psalm begins with just that first word.

Behold. It's meant to arrest our attention. Something as rare in human events as it is good and pleasant. And each of these words is worth a few moments of our time. Good and pleasant. Behold, stop, take notice.

Good and pleasant sound like pretty ordinary words, don't they? But they're not. Not in this context. Unity is good. It's simply good. Simple Hebrew word behind it is tov. It's tov. It is good. A very common word.

It's actually used a lot more than behold. So we won't even try to do a survey of that. But here, what does it denote for us? Behold, how good it is. Well, something that is good in and of itself. Intrinsically, all on its own.

It's just plain old good. It's something that doesn't or oughtn't require any explanation. It's just good. It doesn't need any strengthening adjectives like it's awesome good. It's really good. Oh, this is just super.

It's just plain good. I think the simplicity of it should magnify in our minds how good the Scripture is telling us this unity is or should be. Certainly this is God's perspective. If we pray in accordance with Jesus' words, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, this is heaven's perspective.

Unity is good. Unity among brothers. Good the way creation is good. You know, the first time we come across this word tov, this word good, is in creation. Each of the six days when God created and looked upon what He had made, He saw that it was good, it was good, it was good.

Only strengthened once when mankind is made in Adam. And then it's very good. Let me correct that. When Eve was added to Adam, it was very good. So let us allow the goodness of unity together from God's perspective to magnify by the sheer simplicity.

He just says it's good. We don't have to add to it. We don't have to exaggerate it. We don't need the superlatives that somehow would detract from how good it is. Behold how good. That's the description.

Something good in and of itself. Something intrinsically good. Something you would look upon, and there's no argument that this is just plain old good. And if that is good, if that's the description, the experience of that good is pleasant.

Unity is a pleasant thing to know. As I said, if you've had the blessing of being in a church that has that unified excitement together, you can agree. Yes, it is pleasant, and it is exciting. And it's a wonderful experience to be a part of.

This word pleasant, though. Pleasant is used rather sparingly in the Bible. It's only 28 times, and the word is naim. You don't have to remember that. Naim is where Naomi from the book of Ruth got her name.

Naomi meaning pleasant. It is something that is pleasant, something sweet, something delightful. Like Psalm 135, verse 3. Sing praises to his name, for it, it being God's name, sing praises to his name, for it is pleasant.

Or Psalm 16, verse 11. At God's right hand are pleasures forevermore. If the goodness and the pleasantness of brotherly unity is remarkable, if that warrants a behold, then the two similes that follow, the two comparisons that follow, should also arrest our attention.

The Precious Oil on Aaron’s Head

Now behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It's good in and of itself. It's a pleasant experience. But remember the perspective that we have here. It's good and pleasant to God when he looks down and sees this unity amongst his people.

If goodness and pleasantness of unity is remarkable, if that warrants the behold, then we have to look at these two similes, these comparisons, and these have to arrest our attention just as much. Because what is true unity like?

God's eyes. From heaven's perspective, what is true unity like? It's like the precious oil on the head, running down the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down the collar of his robes. We're going to slow down here.

This is so important. To gain this heavenly perspective on unity, to come away appreciating the unity that Christ has given us enough that we should truly revel in it and protect it and help it to grow.

On this verse, too, I think we need to slow down just a bit. We'll take some time here. Precious is like the precious oil poured on the head. It comes from the same word we had just a moment ago. From tov, it means good.

So we can stop and ask just quickly, why do all the major English Bibles translate that word, which in the other verse was good, and now they call it precious? And the answer is that this oil, this precious oil poured on the head, running down the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down the collar of his robes, that precious oil is precious to God.

Remember, we're trying to get the heavenly perspective. We're trying to see our unity from God's eyes. That oil, which is likened to our unity, is precious to God. We're going to see this in a couple of places.

First in the Old Testament, then in the New. In the Old Testament, if you would turn, turn to Exodus 30. And I'll read to you verses... What do I have here? 24 -33. Verses 24 -33. The Lord said to Moses, And you shall make a sacred or holy anointing oil, blended as by the perfumer.

It shall be a holy anointing oil. With it you shall anoint the tent of the meeting and the ark of the testimony. I'm going to skip down to verse 30. You shall anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests.

And you shall say to the people of Israel, This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person and you shall make no other like it in composition.

It is holy and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people. What's being compared here? In Psalm 133, our unity is like the precious oil with which Aaron, the first high priest of Israel, was anointed.

This is the oil that's being referred to here. Did you hear how many times it was called holy? This shall be holy oil. It is holy. It shall be holy to you. You don't use it on any outsider. And if anybody makes this compound, if anybody uses it on some common purpose or on a common person, you're cut off from the people.

Your passport is taken away. Your citizenship is revoked. You're out of here. That's how important it is because it's that precious to God. Remember that the simile from Psalm 133 says this is unity in God's eyes.

And see what else he said in verse 31 about this oil. This shall be my holy anointing oil. God takes possession of it. It's to be used for holy purposes. The oil is used to consecrate whatever was in God's presence.

Sacred or holy anointing oil. Whatever is anointed becomes holy. Verse 31 calls it holy again. Again, the Lord calls it my anointing oil. He takes possession of it. It's to be prepared and used only as He commands, only as He allows.

The anointing oil cannot be misused. Otherwise, as I said, you're cut off from your people. Are our minds expanding a bit to see how God views our unity? Because the comparison is our unity is like this precious oil.

This holy oil. This oil that God says is His oil. This oil that's so important to Him that you are sent away from the people. You're no longer part of this people if you misuse this holy anointing oil.

God's perspective on our unity. Unity is as precious to the Lord as this. Unity is as precious to the Almighty as was the tabernacle where He met with His people. Unity is to God like the oil that consecrated everything in the tabernacle that came into His presence.

And not just things, but the first high priest, who is Aaron. Our unity is like the ministry of Israel's first high priest. And that was Aaron, Moses' brother. Now you can read of Aaron's inauguration as high priest in Leviticus chapter 8.

His duty was to be the head of the priests. And as such, it was he who went into the holiest place once a year to make atonement for the people's sins. It was he, the high priest, who made the people acceptable to God by that sacrifice.

And this high priest, Aaron, he would actually stand, if you think of it this way, with one foot in the Israelite camp and one foot on the threshold of God's courtyard, or God's court. He had one foot with the Israelites because he, like them, was a sinner.

And when he went in once a year, he had to sacrifice for his own sins. And once that was accepted, then he had a foot on the threshold of God's court and would make the sacrifice for the rest of them.

Our unity is like that ministry, Aaron's ministry, that first high priest whose trajectory shot forward over the centuries to what? To Jesus Christ, our eternal high priest. Jesus Christ, who didn't have one foot with the camp of the Israelites and one foot on the threshold of God's court, but came as God became man in him.

The Word became flesh and had both feet with us and lived as we do, yet without sin. Jesus Christ, who then, as God's unblemished lamb, became the sacrifice for our sins and became our great eternal high priest.

All spoken forward of by Aaron, Israel's first high priest, the Aaron of Psalm 133. It's like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down the collar of his robes.

Our unity, in God's eyes, is likened to that, to that first ministry that speaks so clearly of the eternal high priesthood of Jesus Christ, God's own son. The whole middle of the book of Exodus is about how the tabernacle and the priests would serve God there.

It was the place where God would meet with the people and especially with the intermediary, the high priest, who would stand between God and the people. The Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, all that was there anointed with the holy oil that Psalm 133, verse 2 says is like our unity in God's sight.

Aaron's ministry spoke of the better, the more perfect, the more holy priesthood of Jesus Christ, our great high priest. Jesus, whose precious blood shed on the cross redeems men from their sins. Jesus, whose spirit unites men, heart and soul together.

What is our unity like? It's like that precious oil that God says is His holy oil poured on the head of Aaron, the first high priest who spoke of Jesus Christ's intercession for us. This is how important unity is in God's eyes.

This is a perspective that we must gain as we appreciate and work for and strive for our unity here as a church. And notice in the Psalm that the anointing oil is poured and it runs down on his beard and it runs down on the collar of his robes.

It's on the head, that's where it starts. And then it runs all over him. It flows out of him. It sort of drenches him in this sacred oil that fills the room with this pleasant aroma. The aroma of what?

The aroma of life, of unity with each other because of our unity with God because of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we read from Exodus how precious this anointing oil was. And you're not even allowed to make it, much less misuse it.

And if you made it, and you weren't allowed to make it, you're cut off. And if you misused it, you're cut off from the people. So something so precious, shouldn't you use it sparingly? I mean those terms, holy, sacred, precious, my holy oil, with all that you'd expect them to be very careful with it.

Maybe they just take a little cotton swab and touch and dab a little bit here and there, right? My wife, when her mother passed away and left this world to be with Christ, she got a bottle of her mom's favorite perfume.

I think it was called Passion of Paris. And it wasn't that less expensive perfume that was alcohol-based. This was oil-based. And when she got it, she told me how important it was to her to remember her mother through that perfume.

They say the sense of smell is one of the strongest déjà vu senses that we have. It brings back memories more strong than almost any other sense. And when I looked at it, I said, well, I'm glad you've got that and you'll be able to keep that memory of your mother, but we better not use it because there's only a little bit left.

She said, no, it takes only a little dab. You just barely wet your finger with it, rub it on because it's oil-based. It will last for a very, very long time. It wasn't precious so much as it was just very expensive and it meant a lot to her.

Did you notice the oil with which Aaron was anointed, the precious oil that is precious to God? It's flowing all over him. It's running down him in abundance. It's poured on his head. It's running down his beard.

It's running down the collar of his robes. They're not being careful with it. They're pouring it all over him and it's fairly drenching him. God doesn't hold it back. He doesn't parse it out in tiny crumbs.

The Bible so often represents the Holy Spirit, the work of God in his people. Jesus asks in Luke 11, verse 13, how much more will he give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Not perfume or anointing oil, but the very Spirit of God represented by the oil.

John the Baptist prophesied that God gives the Spirit without measure. And it's pictured here in Psalm 133 with this oil just running all down on Aaron as he's being anointed as the first high priest.

Running down on his head, all over his beard, flowing down his robes, oil that tells of a greater anointing to come, the anointing of believers by the Holy Spirit, remembering that oil so often represents the Holy Spirit.

This is God's view when brothers dwell in unity. Something that he pours out in abundance upon us. Something he is pleased to see. It gives him pleasure to see it. I ask, do you hold our unity with this kind of valuation?

My brother had to pick Alex up and get him up to his eye level. After my brother had gone to Alex's eye level to see what he could see, then picked him up and said, now you see what I see. And Alex stopped knocking things off the table because he was able to have that perspective of his father.

And now we are beginning to have the perspective of our father on our unity. And we see that it is something, if these connections are correct, that the oil represents the Holy Spirit. And Jesus Christ says that the Holy Spirit is poured out upon his people, not parsed out, not crumbed out, but poured out upon us.

This precious anointing. This is how important it is to God. Do you have this kind of valuation of it? Are you willing to strive and work and be a part of something that is that important to God? This is what we've been gearing towards throughout this whole series about unity and how important it should be to us because of how important it is to God.

It has to be as precious to you as is the salvation of which the precious oil spoke. All that was Exodus 30. All that was how precious this oil is that's poured out all over Aaron. That the psalm says that that oil poured out on Aaron, oil representing the Holy Spirit, is like our unity.

In a second, to see how precious our unity is to God, turn to Matthew 26. I'll read verses 6 -13. This is about our Lord Jesus Christ, soon to be crucified for our sins. Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at the table.

And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why do you trouble the woman?

For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

So think about it. Precious oil on the head of Aaron, running down on his beard. Precious oil on the head, on the head of Jesus. Our ultimate and eternal high priest. He's running down on his beard, and it's all down his body.

He's anointed. He is consecrated to the Lord for that one act, that one great act of unity, which of course is the cross, where he would sacrifice himself for our sins. And by that, become our anointed high priest, our eternal high priest, forever interceding for us as he sits at the Father's right hand.

So Psalm 133 verse 2 says that our unity is in God's economy, like the consecration of Aaron, the first high priest, and more importantly, the consecration of his son Jesus, our eternal high priest. So if oil in the Bible so often stands for the Holy Spirit, Psalm 133 verse 2 says our unity is from God's viewpoint, like his holy oil.

We conclude that unity is a work of God's Spirit. Is that not why we can say behold? Behold, God has done something. Behold, this is something remarkable. Stop, take notice. Just slow down in this busy world for a moment and take an account of what God has done here.

Unity in our church confirms God's presence. Unity in our church is more than an attribute. It's a holy attribute. Do you know this kind of unity? It doesn't happen here. It exists here. It's like the awestruck reverence with the church that we must have.

It's something that we don't provide to you. It's something that you bring to us. You bring your reverential all for God and you bring your unity. Your unity, a proof of your conversion to Christ in many ways.

And we speak about anointing. We made the connection between the oil and the Holy Spirit and Aaron being anointed and Jesus being anointed. Do you know that if you're in Christ Jesus, you too have been anointed by that same Holy Spirit represented by the oil.

This all connects together. 1 John 2, verse 20 says,. But you, you believer, you Christian, you have been anointed by the Holy One and you have all knowledge. 2 Corinthians 1, verses 21 -22. And it is God who establishes us with you.

It is God who unites us together. It is God who makes us one. It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Do you see the connection? You're anointed by the Holy Spirit. The oil in the Old Testament representing the work of the Holy Spirit often that metaphor for him. These verses say very clearly that if you're in Christ, you have been anointed in that holy, in that precious way.

We have the unity. I cannot make it for you. You have it if you're in Christ Jesus. You have been anointed by the Holy Spirit and made one together with all of us. And in God's sight, this is good and pleasant and precious.

On the more difficult side, if it is that good and that precious and that important to God, what would we say about its opposite? Proverbs 16 says, there are six things that God hates, seven that are an abomination to him.

The seventh thing, standing in that position of perfect completion, if you will, that thing which God hates in his very soul, and don't worry about God having a soul. He doesn't have a soul like we do.

Proverbs is speaking about the depth of emotion that God has towards this thing in the negative sense. That thing which God hates in his very soul is what? One who sows discord among the brethren. Six things that God hates, seven that are an abomination to him that he hates in his very soul is discord among the brethren.

Why is it so deep that way? Because it's so precious on the other side of the scale. Either by intention or not, someone who corrupts the unity that the Holy Spirit brings is actually literally hated by God.

It's abominable to him. Cliques are hated by God. Respecters of persons are hated by God. I am of Paul. I am of Cephas. I am of Apollos. That attitude is hated by God. Sly insinuations, quarrelsome men are not to be pastors.

Anything that disrupts the unity is to be rejected because it is disrupting something that is precious and holy to God Almighty. It doesn't mean that we must all agree on every point. It does not mean that there will never be any controversy.

It's about putting unity first in your priorities. It's about having God's perspective and God's viewpoint of what unity is and how valuable it is. Consider before you bring something up how important the issue really is.

Go to the appropriate person to discuss it. Be willing to set aside your feelings for the greater good. Be sure your issue is biblically based and essential for the church's health. Strive for peace with all men and for the holiness which we just showed is part and parcel of unity without which no one will see God.