God cares about unity in His family. He created Adam and Eve to need fellowship with Him, and with one another, and for a while in Eden, they experienced that. But as soon as sin entered the picture, both shattered. Human history displays an embarrassing legacy of war, slavery, prejudice, and division that has infected every civilization, bar none. Through it all, God is calling us to something higher.

Just before the cross, Jesus prayed for the unity of the Church. That prayer is not a prayer of “unity for unity’s sake.” Unity in itself is neutral. Whether it is good or bad depends on what binds people together. When people unify around the wrong beliefs or ideals, the result is negative. Jesus prayed for the Church to become one body with Him as the head. He binds us together. When we surrender to the Holy Spirit and submit to God’s authority and serve one another, we paint a powerful, unified picture of God for the world to clearly see.