EXTRACT – GOD’S PRINCIPLE OF UNITY

And now, as to the principle in general: God is working in the midst of evil to produce a unity of which He is the centre and the spring, and which owns dependently His authority. … How can it be then this union? He separates the called from the evil. "Wherefore come out from the midst of them and be separated, and I will receive you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord”, 2 Cor.6:17. Now here we have it distinctly set forth. This was God's way of gathering. It was by saying, Come out from among them. He could not have gathered true unity around Him otherwise. Since evil exists -- yea, is our natural condition -- there cannot be union of which the Holy God is the centre and power but by separation from it. Separation is the first element of unity and union.

Now there can be no moral power which can unite, away from evil, but Christ. … He alone can, of God, be the attractive centre which draws together to Himself all on whom God so acts. … Thus Christ becomes, not only the centre of unity to the universe in His glorious title of power, but … He becomes a peculiar and special centre of divine affections in man, round which they are gathered as the sole divine centre of unity. … But here again, we find this separation of a peculiar people; He “gave himself for us that he might ... purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works.", Titus 2:14. He was the very pattern of the divine life in man, separate from the evil, by which it was universally surrounded; He was the friend of publicans and sinners, piping in grace to men by familiar and tender love; but He was ever the separate man. And so He is as the centre of the church and High-Priest: "For such a high-priest became us, holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners", Heb.7:26.

Separation from evil is the necessary first principle of communion with [God]. … So with one another. If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another (1 John 1:7). And mark, here there is no limit. It is as God is in the light. … Of this unity and fellowship, I may add, the Lord's supper is the symbol and expression. For we, being many, are all one loaf, for we are all partakers of that one loaf. … the duty of the saint as to [evil] is plain on the first principles of Christianity, though doubtless his faith may be exercised by it. "Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity", 2 Tim.2:19.

Thus, then, the word of God affords us the true nature, object, and power of unity; and, in so doing, it gives us the measure of it, by which we judge of what pretends to it, and the manner of it; and, moreover, the means of maintaining its fundamental principles according to the nature and power of God by the Holy Spirit in the conscience where it may not be realised together in power. Its nature flows from God's; for of true unity He must be the centre, and He is holy; and He brings us into it by separating us from evil. Its object is Christ; He is the sole centre of the church's unity, objectively as its Head. Its power is the presence of the Holy Spirit down here, sent as the Spirit of truth withal from the Father by Jesus. Its measure is walking in the light, as God is in the light; fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus, and, we may add, through the testimony of the written word – the apostolic and prophetic word of the New Testament especially. The path of the saints thus becomes clear. God will secure by eternal power the vindication, not here perhaps, but before His angels, of them who have rightly owned His nature and truth in Christ Jesus.

I believe these fundamental principles are deeply needed in this day, for the saint who seeks to walk truly and thoroughly with God. Latitudinarian unity it may be painful and trying to keep aloof from; it has an amiable form in general, is in a measure respectable in the religious world, tries nobody's conscience, and allows of everybody's will. It is the more difficult to be decided about, because it is often connected with a true desire of good, and is associated with amiable nature. And it seems rigid, and narrow, and sectarianism to decline so to walk. But the saint, when he has the light of God, must walk clearly in that. God will vindicate His ways in due time. Love to every saint is a clear duty; walking in their ways is not. And he that gathers not with Christ scatters. There can be but one unity; confederacy, even for good, is not it, even if it have its form.

From ‘Separation from Evil, God’s Principle of Unity’

J.N. Darby Collected Writings vol.1 pp.357-365

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