Unity Of Command

“A kingdom divided against itself will collapse. A home filled with strife and division destroys itself” Mk.3:24-25 [LB].

The Principle of Unity of Command states that for every objective, ensure unity of effort under one responsible commander. Hence, the key to unity of command is one person in charge. There was this series of wars between Rome and Carthage called the Punic wars. In the second Punic war, the Carthaginians invaded Rome. At this time, Rome operated a senate system but it became clear to Rome that if they did not have a single person in command, they were going to be wiped out by the Carthaginians. So Rome appointed the famous Fabius Maximus as their commander in chief. But the senate of Rome gave him a six-month period to lead the nation.

Fabius Maximus came up with the Fabian strategy [also used in business management] and dealt with the opposing force of Carthage. But for political reasons after the six-month period, Fabian was asked to step down and the senate appointed two generals to lead the nation interchangeably as decided by the senate. The Carthaginians saw this, capitalized on it, and defeated Rome. Rome learned a bitter lesson. One person in charge!

God always puts one person in charge. In Eden, God did not form a committee of human beings consisting of Adam and Eve and then give them the instructions about the fruit. God did not bother to do that. God gave the instruction to one person, Adam. It was Adam’s responsibility to communicate this to his wife, which he did. But Eve fell out of the unity of command by rationalizing.

Every time you rationalize a line of instruction, you are heading for trouble no matter how logical it is. Check the Scriptures – when God wanted to save a whole nation, God raised a man- Moses. When Moses was going, God said, hand over to Joshua. In Ezekiel, God said, I looked for a man to stand in the gap. How many men did He look for? One man to stand for a whole nation. In Isaiah 6, God said, who shall we send, who will go for us? And with Jesus it is the same thing; one man died for our sins.

Prayer: Lord, teach me to stay under the authority of those You have placed in charge of my home, my office and the church, in Jesus Name.