At the Last Supper, Jesus prayed for His disciples and for all those who would believe in Him because of their words, “that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21). He repeated that prayer shortly after with a different group of disciples in the Americas. (See 3 Nephi 19:23, 29.)
Thousands of years earlier, Enoch’s people achieved that ideal. They reached the point where “they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses 7:18). As a result, their city, Zion, “in process of time, was taken up into heaven” (Moses 7:21).
Disciples of Christ after His visit to the Americas achieved a similar state of unity:
There was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people … and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.
4 Nephi 1:15-16
How can we achieve a similar state of unity? Elder D. Todd Christofferson provided some counsel in an April 2023 general conference talk entitled “One in Christ“:
- We become one as we each align ourselves with Jesus Christ. “If individually we each ‘put on Christ,’ then together we can hope to become one, as Paul said, ‘the body of Christ.'”
- Follow the second commandment: to love one another as Jesus loves us.
- Set aside “differences, disagreements, and disputes.”
- Bend efforts toward a common cause.
- Seek for harmony, not sameness, and avoid contention. “We can have our hearts knit together in love, be one in faith and doctrine, and still cheer for different teams, disagree on various political issues, debate about goals and the right way to achieve them, and many other such things. But we can never disagree or contend with anger or contempt for one another.”
Elder Christofferson shared the following profound insight from Marion G. Romney: Unity in our society begins by eliminating conflicts within our own individual hearts.
If a single person, yielding to Satan, is filled with the works of the flesh, he wars within himself. If two yield, they each war within themselves and fight with each other. If many people yield, a society [reaps] the harvest of great stress and contention. If the rulers of a country yield, there is world-wide contention.
As the works of the flesh have universal application, so likewise does the gospel of peace. If one man lives it, he has peace within himself. If two men live it, they each have peace within themselves and with each other. If the citizens live it, the nation has domestic peace. When there are enough nations enjoying the fruit of the Spirit to control world affairs, then, and only then, will the war-drums throb no longer, and the battle flags be furl’d.
“The Price of Peace,” Ensign, Oct. 1983
I love that insight—how can I expect to be at peace with others if I am not at peace with myself? The goal of one heart and one mind begins with me as an individual.
Today, I will strive for peace and unity: within myself, with my family, and with my friends in the broader community. I will work to align my desires more closely with Christ, to love others as He loves them, and to work with others toward common causes in order to build greater unity.
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