As a fitness goal, many people want great abs. But great abs are the result of a focus beyond the abs themselves. Great abs are the result of a focus on a strong core. In fact, the abs are only a small part of your core and core function.

Your core is a complex series of muscles that includes everything, other than your arms and legs. Your core is a factor in every movement of the human body. We could say that everything you do is connected to or in unity with the core.

As a goal in life, many people want a great life, or a great company, or a great ministry, or a great marriage, or a great friendship. But all these great things are the result of a focus beyond the things themselves. A great life is the result of a focus beyond the pursuit of a great life. A great life is the result of a focus on a strong core: on unity.

The Psalmist sings, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers (and sisters, a person, a people) dwell in unity.” (Psalm 133:1) The unity he has in mind and holds in his heart is unity, a dwelling together, with God and with others.

We could say, then, that unity is a factor in every movement of your life.

We could also say that, as disciples and as the church of Jesus, unity is a factor in every movement of the body of Christ.

The health of an organization, the health of any organism, is in its unity, in its being and working together. This is a direct reflection of the image of God. We are imaging the image we are created in when we “dwell together” in unity.

The health of the Godhead is in the unity of the Godhead: the union of the Father, Spirit, and Son. “I do only what I see the Father doing. I speak only what I hear the Father saying,” Jesus said. How does Jesus see and hear the Father? In and by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

There is unity in the Godhead. There is no competing for who’s right, no conflict, no politics, no bureaucracy, no hostility, no division, no mockery. Only unity. Being of one mind and heart and will. “How good and pleasant” it must be to dwell within the “happy land of the Trinity”!

The health of our church(es) is in our unity with God and with one another. The life of the fruit is in the life of the vine. As the saying goes, “You can catch sickness but you can’t catch health.” Health is intentionally pursued.

Health is found in abiding in the vine. The fruit of the Spirit—”love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)—is the result of abiding in unity with God and with one another. In fact, there’s no other way for the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us, to be cultivated and to be pruned, except when we “dwell together” in relationship. To dwell apart or, worse, to drive apart and bring disunity, is to become disconnected from the Vine and as a result to become an uncultivated and unpruned wilderness.

If we want to be a healthy church (and healthy disciples), we must intentionally pursue a strong, healthy core. We must intentionally pursue together unity.

If I want my mind, my heart, my body, my marriage, my company, my friendship, my finances, my parenting—anything and everything in my life—to be healthy, then I must focus beyond those things on my “core”. I must remember that unity is a factor in every movement of my life. The health of God is in His unity. The health God gives is in our unity: our unity with Him and with others.