Attitude of Unity

One of the basic questions on promoting church unity, whether at the local or the global level, is one of attitude. Paul makes this clear in Philippians 2:1-11. The appropriate Christian attitude is putting other people before ourselves. This is the attitude shown by Christ, who is God and became a human being to save us from our sins. But too often in the church today we see people looking at things in terms of their needs and their plans and what they want. (I am speaking here of both leaders and congregational members.) It is easy to spiritualize this and say, I need to have my spiritual needs met, or, I am doing what I think God wants me to do. And I need to be careful here because there may be a legitimate basis for this. There are cases where it would be spiritually damaging or disobedient to God to go along with what others want or to uphold the status quo. But I think we are often too ready to assume our way is the right way and to approach issues based on what we want rather than how we can serve others. So I think we need to honestly ask before we push our needs or our program, are we really considered with God and the welfare of His people or with getting our own way?