The Cancer of Disunity

Disunity behaves like cancer, not like the flu. You don’t wait it out. Left alone, it doesn’t plateau — it metastasizes, moving from two people into small groups, into staff, into the congregation, until people who can’t tell you the original offense are still carrying the tumor. Unfortunately, most churches treat conflict like something to manage rather than something to remove. They medicate the symptoms — smoother bulletins, brighter greeters, a sermon series on grace — while the disease keeps growing underneath. And cancer, unmanaged, doesn’t respect your church’s five-year plan.

Here’s the treatment, and it’s not comfortable: cancer is killed with concentrated light. Radiation doesn’t work in the dark — it works because it’s aimed directly at the diseased cells. Jesus said it plainly: everyone who does evil hates the light, because the light exposes what’s really there (John 3:20–21). Disunity survives in hallway conversations and closed-door assumptions. It dies the moment two people sit across from each other and talk about what is bothering them. Actually, have the conversation they’ve been avoiding. Ephesians 4:3 doesn’t tell us to feel unified — it tells us to make every effort to keep it, which means unity is work. Proverbs is blunter still: God lists “one who sows discord among brothers” among the things he hates (Prov 6:16–19).

The good news is that light doesn’t destroy people — it destroys what’s hiding in them. A hard conversation, done in humility and truth, isn’t the wound. It’s the cure.

Is your church unified? If disunity is there, God calls you to address it. Pick one relationship in your church currently hiding in the dark, and this week, bring it into the light — by God’s grace. Sit down together, name it, and have an honest conversation.  Yes, it will feel uncomfortable, but that is OK. The believer’s calling is to graciously, patiently, and kindly turn on the light. The good news is – the cross has already dealt with the shame of what you’ll uncover there.