Undivided

On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln used this passage from Matthew 12:25 in his campaign speech – “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe the government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

It’s not just the government. Any organized body of like-mindedness that becomes polarized on issues to the point of division, will not stand long. As we look out over the scope of our nation from the last decade or more, it doesn’t take much to see how divided we really are.

What’s it take to bring unity? Laws? Education? Prosperity? Thankfully Jesus modeled for us what it takes to bring unity, and ultimately peace, to a group of people. However, God’s way of bringing two halves together will be rejected by the world (John 15:18-25, John 1:6-13).

David said in Psalms 86:11-12, “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forevermore.” He recognizes what it would take to keep his kingdom together, he also recognized that it would take similar steps to keep any relationship together.

Teach me. Not just classroom learning. In fact, God does more show than tell (James 2:17-18). From Abraham to Joseph, from Moses to Elijah, and obviously in Jesus – God has shown us what He wants us to do.

Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Jesus taught all of these things, which ultimately defined His Way. A path that He invited people to “follow” Him regularly on.

When Jesus is our model, we have to walk and talk the way He did in order for us to achieve the kind of unity that only God can bring (John 17). It was Jesus’ truth that would set us free (John 8:32), not our own. It was Jesus’ guidance that would lead to eternal life, not our own (John 14:6).

But David highlights an important ingredient in the “following God” that leads to unity – “unite my heart to fear Your name”. The New American Standard Bible says to “give me an undivided heart…” James says in James 1:7-8 that the man who doubts God’s ways is a "...double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Double mindedness is thinking and acting in two different ways expecting the same result (Kelley’s definition). Jesus offered the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22 the guidance that could have led him to achieve what David was praying for in Psalms 86; but he was a double-minded man. God wants our heart to want what He wants; and He wants all people to be saved because He loves them. It’s the love for our neighbor that proves to be the secret ingredient to unity – nationally, spiritually, and personally.