“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.”
—Jesus, Matthew 5:9, The Message

It’s no secret that division is running rampant. We’re quick to disagree—often passionately—and divide.

Pets: Dogs vs. cats. [Dogs for the win!]Subtitles on TV: On vs. off. [Off!]Sports: Eagles vs. Cowboys. [False choice; Patriots for sure!]Pizza toppings: Cheese vs. pepperoni. [Another false choice; I’m a veggie pizza fan—and that means I often get the pizza to myself.]

And of course, there are weightier, more consequential points of contention.

Amid all the opportunities for disagreement, I find it deeply convicting to remember that Jesus said we would be known as His followers by our love for one another. As if to demonstrate how allegiance to Christ supersedes our many differences, Jesus brought together a group of unlikely disciples: a doctor and fishermen, a Zealot and a tax collector. The Church we’re part of today is the direct result of a grand group project Jesus initiated among the very first Christians. In Jesus’ longest recorded prayer (John 17), He asks God to unify all believers “that [we] may become perfectly one,” so that the world would recognize and know the Father’s love.

The mandate hasn’t changed. We’ve all seen countless examples of division, but I recently saw two beautiful examples of this counter-cultural, others-first unity among believers.

Earlier this year, I traveled to Washington, DC, to meet with pastors, church leaders, and staff from TearFund, Living Water, World Relief, and Enlace. We came together as members of The Global Lift Collective, an initiative launched by Life.Church, to discuss strategies for unified poverty relief efforts in Malawi and Central America. The Collective aims to coordinate global Christ-centered programs and equip local churches with sustainable tools to transform their communities. By pooling resources from multiple organizations, communities benefit from a broader support system and aren’t limited by what a single organization has to offer.

What stood out to me about this group of leaders was how little they cared about which organization got the credit for lives changed. They open-sourced information they could have seen as proprietary, believing it was a monumental win for God’s Kingdom if any among us were better able to serve marginalized communities as a result of this collaboration. No one felt threatened by others’ presence in their sector. No one felt the need to upstage others who work under a different organizational banner—because their greatest allegiance isn’t to an organization. These organizations are accomplishing more together than we could ever accomplish alone—and God gets the glory. To me, the Global Lift Collective is an encouraging answer to the prayer Christ prayed for His followers in John 17.

Last month, I traveled to Burundi, a small East African nation. Newspapers tell a story of division across East Africa, as conflict is growing between three nations engaged in an ongoing border war, destabilizing communities and endangering many. Yet in Burundi last month, I was privileged to witness a group of colleagues from these three nations gathering to participate in a regenerative agriculture symposium. There was a beautiful spirit of open-handed generosity, collaboration, and unity as these followers of Christ worshipped and served together, even as tensions escalated among their nations of origin. Their greatest allegiance wasn’t to a nation but to Christ and His calling.

As I returned home to a country where tensions continue to escalate, even among Christ’s followers, I thought of these examples and of God’s words in 1 Peter 2:9: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” We won’t always agree, but I wonder what it would blike for us to rediscover the unity Jesus prayed for.  What does it look like to love amid deep disagreement? Where is our greatest allegiance? What examples of God-honoring unity have you seen, and how might God be inviting you to go and do likewise?