The Biblical Call to Spiritual Unity

By Robb Brunansky

Published January 30, 2025

Every church faces the reality of conflict.

Throughout the New Testament, we see that conflict was a constant problem the early church faced, and the nature of the conflict varied from church to church. As we’ve noted previously, perhaps no church in the New Testament was so riddled with conflict as the one in Corinth.

Jesus warned against conflict during His earthly ministry when He said, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls.” No church can survive if it is divided and marked by factions. Unity is critical to the church’s survival and its ability to fulfill God’s calling in the power of the Spirit. This is why we see Paul beginning to address the Corinthians at this focal point: because he knew if he tried to deal with their other issues first, the church would still fall apart due to their disunity.

Even when the church is not collapsing due to conflict, church conflict still sucks the life and joy out of a congregation. John MacArthur wrote, “Few things demoralize, discourage, and weaken a church as much as bickering, backbiting, and fighting among its members.” The church should be a spiritual oasis set apart from the world, where believers come to be refreshed by the Spirit of God as they worship and hear the Word of God preached. However, when the church is racked with division and its members are bickering and fighting with one another, it becomes a place no one wants to be. Such an atmosphere of demoralizing discouragement paralyzes a church, making it impossible to joyfully take the gospel to the nations.

Paul, therefore, sets out to address the problem of church conflict in Corinth, showing the cure for church conflict in 1 Corinthians 1:10-17. In this passage, Paul lays out three points on how to cure conflict in the church.

The first point is the call to unity. Before Paul gets into the specific details of the situation in Corinth and how believers should address this issue, he wants to show the Corinthians – and all Christians by extension – the often misunderstood and misapplied standard of church unity. The standard that Paul puts forward involves three things.

First, church unity involves professing the same truth.

As we look at the circumstances within the church at Corinth, we see one fundamental problem: they were opposed to one another because of what they were saying about the truth. When it came to the various teachers of God’s Word, or even to the Lord Himself for those claiming no human leader other than Jesus, the Corinthians were acting as if Paul, Apollos, Peter, and Jesus said different things.

Paul’s point, then, is simply that as believers in Jesus Christ, who are members of the same local church, we must all agree about the same truth. On a doctrinal level, we all must say the same thing about what the Bible teaches, especially on central doctrines of the faith. On a practical level, we should all recognize that if we are members, we must not pit believers against believers, especially one leader against other leaders, as if we do not all believe the same things about God and His Word.

We recognize there will be some points of disagreement in the church on different things. Paul is not saying we should have the same opinion about every conceivable topic under the sun, but when it comes to the core doctrines of our faith, we must agree and say the same thing.

The challenge often comes in those areas where we have a different opinion about a lower-tier issue, or we have a different preference or desire than someone else about various matters. That’s why Paul goes on to give a second aspect of church unity, noting that believers who are upholding this standard recognize that they are playing for the same team.

Christians are commanded to eliminate unnecessary divisions to obey God’s command to be a unified church. Paul’s call here is really for the Corinthian believers to walk in the Spirit rather than give in to the desires of the flesh. In Galatians 5:13-26, Paul addresses this issue, when he calls the Galatians to refrain from using their freedom in Christ to satisfy their own fleshly desires and to serve others in love. If we exercise our freedom according to the flesh rather than motivated by Spirit-wrought love, or when people envy and challenge one another, we will end up destroying ourselves and others in the church.

Now, there are, of course, times where division is necessary. Paul is very clear in his writings that there must be a clear line of truth and holiness in the church; and when someone crosses that line, there must be a division and a separation. The goal of necessary division, though, is future unity; but the reality is that when there is ongoing, unrepentant sin or false doctrine, there is no unity. We cannot pretend unity exists while we are risking the destruction of God’s flock.

One other issue arises when we look at playing for the same team and the unity God calls us to preserve as the body of Christ, and that is what happens when there is a disagreement about what the church should do in certain situations. How does the church operate when it has to make a decision but there is not unity on what direction should be taken? This is where we need a biblical understanding of the role of leadership. Perhaps one of the major reasons why the church at Corinth was so disunified was because the congregation was not living in willing subjection to those God had placed in authority over them. So, Paul urges the Corinthians to be subjected to their leaders, those named and unnamed, who help in the labor of the church.

Finally, the call to church unity means that we must all be practicing the same thinking.

Before unity becomes a reality outwardly, it must begin as a mindset. Unity and disunity both stem from the way we think and the thoughts we practice. Here Paul calls us to unity by reminding us that the way believers profess the same truth and play for the same team comes from practicing the same kind of thinking.

Paul first says we must be made complete, which is the idea of being put into your proper condition or being adjusted. There is an inherent assumption here that we are broken by default in our thinking, and that the natural way of our thinking will not lead us to unity. Our minds need to be adjusted and set into their proper condition. This is why Paul writes in Romans 12:2 that we need to be transformed in our minds and renewed in our thinking. Christians are well-served to take a step back and examine ourselves and our thinking to judge if it is in line with the Spirit or the flesh.

Paul goes on to say we need to be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. The word mind represents the way we think about something. Scripture tells us the mind can be controlled by the flesh, or it can be renewed to conform to God’s will. All believers can fall back into the mindsets they had before Christ if they are not careful to practice the right kind of thinking and make decisions based on the Word of God rather than the desires of the flesh. However, when the church collectively begins to practice thinking like Christ, and when we all dedicate ourselves to renewing our minds after God’s Word, we will have greater unity because we are using the same lens to interpret the world and make decisions.

The word judgment is closely related to the word mind, but it has a slightly different emphasis because this term focuses on the intentions of the mind, referencing our desires, inclinations, opinions, and purposes. In 1 Corinthians 1:10, we see that believers should all have the same purpose, which is encapsulated in Philippians 1:27, where Paul wrote that we all should be striving together for the gospel. Believers in a local congregation, no matter what ministry we serve in, should adjust our thinking so that we have the same purpose as people in different ministries, even with their unique giftings and personalities.

In his commentary on 1 Corinthians, MacArthur wrote, “Being of the same mind and the same judgment rules out grudging or hypocritical unity. Unity must be genuine… A member who strongly disagrees with his church leadership and policy, not to mention doctrine, cannot be happy or productive in his own Christian life or be of any positive service to the congregation.” It is so important to understand the unity Paul and (most important) Christ desires is genuine unity, coming from a heart that truly prizes the unity of God’s people.

This is the call to unity. I praise God for unity that He has sustained in churches around this country and world, and I pray that His Word will serve to establish that unity more strongly among us.