If the only things you knew about Christianity were derived from the gospels, you might imagine that every church is a community which devotes its time to feeding the hungry, helping widows and orphans, visiting prisoners, caring for the sick, serving the poor, talking about Jesus, and living together in an amazing form of community. Unfortunately most churches fall short of that ideal, many of them by a long way.
In chapter 11 of his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul highlights some of the abuses that had crept into the church at Corinth just 25 or so years after the crucifixion of Jesus: “I hear that divisions exist among you when you meet as a church, and I partly believe it… One person goes hungry, and another is drunk.” Somehow the unity of the body of Christ had fallen into disunity, and instead of looking after the poor people were looking after their own interests.
While disunity and failure to care for the poor seem to be two different things, one causes the other. When followers of Jesus stop looking at Jesus and start looking at themselves, they become more concerned about what they are getting rather than what they are giving. Disunity typically stems from the conflict of selfish interests, whereas unity typically stems from the meeting together of generous interests.