Amos 3:3 asks, “Can two walk together unless they are in agreement?” This has often been wrongly interpreted to mean that we cannot walk together with someone unless we are in full agreement. If that was true, we would not be able to walk with anyone, including, in most cases, our spouses! Amos 3:3 is a question, and the answer is “yes.” I think the answer would be more accurate if we can walk together in any area that we agree on.

    Unity is required for the church to accomplish her most basic mandates. As we come closer to the end of this age, the church will not be able to survive without unity. However, the church is going to unite until it becomes the most powerful force on the earth. This is now beginning to take place on a level greater than I have witnessed in nearly forty years of being a Christian.

    Unity is one of the most powerful forces on earth. As the Lord said in    
John 17:20-23, the result of the unity of His people would actually be the world believing that He was indeed sent by the Father:

    “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
    “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; so that the world may believe that You send Me.
    “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;
    I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

    This is the last night that Jesus lived on the earth as a man, and He knew it was His last. If you knew that tonight was your last on the earth, what would you spend it praying about? You would pray about the most important things on your heart. Therefore, we can conclude from this prayer of Jesus, recorded in John 17, that it represents the most important things on His heart, which we also know is one with the Father’s heart. We can see by this that one of the main things on the heart of God is the unity of His people. If this is one of the main desires of our Lord, it must also become one of the main things on our hearts if we are truly abiding in Him.

    As we have addressed the last couple of weeks, the power of unity is extraordinary, and the failure to unify can bring tragic consequences. In the prayer of Jesus, we see that He gave us His glory so that we could be one. We can begin to move closer toward this ultimate purpose of God by not dividing over petty matters as we have done so often, taking Amos 3:3 as an exhortation to seek the places of agreement so that we can walk together in those areas. This can be a helpful beginning, but the ultimate unity must come as we have described in Psalm 133:

        Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!
        It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard,
even Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes.
        It is like the dew of Hermon, coming down upon the mountains of Zion; because there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forever.

    We see here that it is as we anoint the Head that the oil will flow down until it covers the whole body. It is as we turn our attention to the Lord, giving Him our worship and adoration as He deserves, seeing Him and His glory so that we are changed into His same image, that we will then be able to come into the unity He has ordained.

    Even unity can be an idol, eclipsing our devotion to Him. It must be so important to us that we would never divide from another brother or sister in Christ, but resolve that we will work out any issues that are separating us. Yet we will certainly fail at this if we do not keep our attention on the Lord, and we cannot fail if we do. Division is always the ultimate result of not looking to the Lord.    

Romans12:18 declares, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” If we start out with that premise, and if possible find a way to be at peace with others, we can then find some areas of agreement and fellowship. Some level of relationship can be built on this. Let us resolve to have a basic devotion to this, and this year clear up any divisions in His body that we have been a party to. The result can only benefit us, and more importantly, it will be a benefit to the ultimate purposes of the Lord.