Sometimes, something is greater than the sum of its parts. An automobile engine, for example, is greater when it’s assembled than when it’s just a collection of parts. Likewise, a symphony is greater than individual musicians practicing in isolation. But the reverse can also be true—something can be less than the sum of its parts.
Consider the 2004 U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball Team. They had LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Carmelo Anthony, and Allen Iverson—superstars all on one team. But they struggled because they were too focused on their individual talents and egos to work together. They lost to teams like Argentina, Puerto Rico, and Lithuania. When they returned home, they didn’t need individual skill improvement; they needed coaching to build cohesiveness as a team.
I have been immensely grateful for the members of my church this year. By and large, we have been free from conflict related to politics and our current election cycle. As I want you to see in just a moment, this kind of unity only comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. It also shows that the church has a powerful, relevant message for today’s divided world: we are called to unity in Christ, embodying the love of the Trinity by the Spirit’s power.
In Ephesians 3:14–19, Paul teaches us a prayer. He writes,
[14] For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, [15] from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, [16] that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, [18] may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, [19] and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (ESV)
Here, we see him asking the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to unite us as one church, just as they are one God. The unifying force within the Trinity is love, and as we learn in Ephesians, the purpose of God creating all things is to reveal the wisdom of His love in the church. His love within the Trinity is so vast that He wouldn’t keep it to Himself; He desired to share it with the world.
This is why we have images of the church, marriage, family, and creation’s diversity. Philosophers throughout history have searched for the one thing that harmonizes all things, and the answer is found in the revelation of the Trinity and the sacrificial love of Christ.
Notice in verses 18 and 20, Paul prays that Christians would have strength by the power of the Holy Spirit to comprehend, with all the saints, the breadth, length, height, and depth of the love of God. This understanding is not found so much individually as it is lived in community, experienced in the body of Christ, and shown within the body of Christ.
To put it simply, Paul prays that we would know how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of Christ. His love bridges heaven and earth, reaches the most desperate sinner, lasts for eternity, and gathers people of all backgrounds, preferences, and ethnicities into one family where we can love each other as such. This is the love Paul urges us to "comprehend."
It's also this love that is the only answer to the division we experience during an election cycle. When society forgets the Christian worldview—especially the concept of the Trinity—we lose a fundamental sense of unity. When the Christian perspective was more prominent, we believed that it was possible to disagree yet love deeply, as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do. But as a culture, we’ve largely forgotten this, even within evangelical circles.
One theory about our current anxiety is that we have too many options in everything, leading us to try and simplify by reducing choices to only one. And when we do that, we end up eliminating every other choice. This makes sense only when we don’t understand the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which calls us to be united as family beyond superficial divisions.
The real test of the gospel’s power is when Christians who, by the culture’s standards, should have nothing to do with one another, choose to embrace one another in love because they see their identity in Christ as deeper and more significant than any other affiliation. When people outside the church see Christians loving each other despite differences that tend to divide everyone else, they will be forced to stop and consider what accounts for such stupefying love. Love across difference is the ultimate apologetic.
Christian, see this election (no matter the outcome) as an opportunity to bear witness to the reconciling, unifying power of the gospel. Let your love for one another capture the world’s attention.