God is unity. God is love. The essence of God’s character implies He cannot be divided. We don’t ever get just a part of God, nor should we ever presume that He is OK with man attempting to divide Him. His essence (and all aspects of who He is) is indivisible.
 
To love God is to love all of Him. That is a saint’s truest aim in life. A person who’s seeking only parts of Him (e.g., the parts they like) is not seeking the God of the Bible. God does not even tolerate this thought.
 
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
- Deuteronomy 6:4-6
 
The Hebrew word translated “one” in v4 doesn’t necessarily imply singularity; rather, it speaks to unity. God is unity, which means He cannot be divided in any way within Himself or from without. There is no force strong enough to do so. He is who He is, who He’s always been – perfectly stable and indivisible.
 
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
- Revelation 1:8
 
I often describe divine unity as the “sphere of God” – it’s the best way I know how to picture God’s essence. Everything good, holy, and righteous exists inside this sphere. Everything else exists outside of it, by default. Everything in the sphere of God, since it is unified in Him, is indivisible. Even the demons know this truth.
 
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
- James 2:19
 
This is a difficult concept to teach, to be honest, because most people are drawn to God through Christ with many preconceptions about Him. Before being saved, a person doesn’t even like God, even if they say they do or even if they say they believe in Him as the demons do. The truth is, until God opens that person’s eyes to the Truth about Himself, they will remain in darkness and continue to cling to false ideas about Him. For example, arguably the greatest lie ever told is that God demands manmade goodness to be saved. That’s a lie, as you know (it is by grace through faith a person is saved – Ephesians 2), but consider how many people you meet who say they believe in God and yet hold fast to a false concept of how He saves a person.
 
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
 
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
- Ephesians 2:1-5
 
There are entire prosperous, ancient religions which exist outside the sphere of God because they divide Him for their own purposes and desires, supplanting critical truths with lies. Sure, they use all the right language, but their fellowship exists on the premise of a false gospel. They call themselves “Christians”, but the truth is they aren’t – how can they be if they preach salvation by works?
 
There’s no such thing as unity of the faith if we can’t agree on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember, a false gospel lives outside the sphere of God, where nothing good exists.
 
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
- 2 Corinthians 11:3-4
 
Shall I succumb to the pressure of widening the way that leads to life in the name of unity? Shall I take it upon myself to soften God’s justice, knowing full well I’d be functioning outside the sphere of God, just to appease those who wish to call themselves “Christians”? What right do I have to such evil? None.
 
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
- Matthew 7:13-14
 
We mustn’t ever propose to divide God in order to appease man, especially as it pertains to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s not love, that’s an evil perpetrated by the devil, himself.
 
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
 
Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
 
And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
- Mark 12:28-34
 
Jesus described the scribe as “not far from the kingdom of God” because he understood that religious rituals do not save. He understood that God sees the heart of man. This doesn’t mean his heart was effectively changed towards Jesus, for he was still unsaved, but he was headed in the right direction. The truth is that he wasn’t in the kingdom of God (in the sphere of God) yet, enjoying the unity of the faith. If he were, he would’ve honored his Lord instead of condescending to Him. His speech would’ve expressed a supernatural bond with Jesus and a love that knit him to His Savior.
 
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
- Colossians 3:14
 
God is unity. God is love. To love Him is to love all of Him, not just the parts we like. If we divide Him, He is no longer Himself and therefore no longer the God who saves.

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins