By: Dale Weckbacher
John 13:35
By this all people
will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
(ESV)
We have just experienced one of the most divisive elections
I can remember. Hatred seems to be the
norm in our world, especially during divisive elections like this one. However, in John 13:35, Jesus tells his
disciples this is not to be the way the world is to view the church. Unfortunately, however, this has not been the
norm throughout church history.
Scripture uses marriage as a picture of Jesus relationship
with His church. Those reading this who
are married understand that no marriage is perfect and that there will always
be discord when you bring two people together.
When we accept Christ and become part of His church, we are thrust
together with other people. We also begin
a relationship with Christ and even though we expressed our love for Jesus when
we accepted Him as our savior, we still live in fleshly bodies and some of what
Jesus asks us to do in His Word will conflict with our fleshly natures. We therefore will experience discord among
each other in the church as well as times of discord over what Jesus wants us
to do.
However, just as in a marriage, we must work out these
discords among us for a lost and dying world must see a unified church for why
would they want to accept Christ and become part of something that is no
different than what they see in the world.
We therefore as the church, the bride of Christ must work out our
differences and unite by,
1)
Seeking forgiveness (Matthew 6:14-15) – Most of
us have experienced hurt from someone we love.
When this hurt comes from someone in the Church, a place where we expect
to find love and acceptance, this hurt is even more hurtful. If we are the one who hurt someone else, we
may experience guilt over what we have done.
Jesus instructed us to leave our gift on the alter when we become aware
we have hurt a fellow brother or sister in the Lord and be reconciled. By doing this we can avoid public humiliation
by having our differences aired in a court of law. This way instead of the world seeing the
church air its differences publicly it sees how we can reconcile our
differences among ourselves in a loving and productive manner.
2)
Praying for our own churches and other churches
in our communities and world (James 5:16) – As we are beginning to see the
erosion of religious liberty in many parts of the world, even the United
States, (1)
the body of Christ must unite.
Unfortunately, just as in the world, it is easy for us to become so busy
with life and the affairs of our local church to ignore the needs of other
churches in our communities. I live in
Phoenix Arizona, a large city with an abundance of different churches. While each of these churches must focus on
the needs of their congregations, I believe we also must take time to pray for
the other churches in our communities for in God’s eyes, we are all part of the
overall body of Christ.
3)
Unifying around the message of the Gospel (1Corinthians 2:1-2) – The reason why Christianity has a diverse collection of
different denominations is due to theological differences in interpretation of
scripture. Instead of allowing these
theological differences to bring division to the Body of Christ, I believe it
is important for us to unite around the Gospel of Christ and fulfill the Great
Commission of Christ and bring the Gospel to the lost (Mark 16:14-18). It is this unity of purpose that will
demonstrate the Church’s love for Christ and each other, drawing others to
Christ and bringing about revival in our communities.
It has been said that united we stand and divided we
fall. While this is true in all aspects
of life, it is even more true for the Church which has been entrusted with the
mission of proclaiming the Good News that Jesus has come and is coming
again. However, unlike the first coming
of Jesus to bring salvation, the second coming is one that will bring judgment
upon those who have not accepted Jesus as their savior (2 Thessalonians1:5-12).
Let us therefore as a church put aside our petty differences
by seeking forgiveness from those we have hurt or who have hurt us. Let us pray not just for our local
congregation but for the church as a whole for after all, we are on the same
team. Let us put aside our petty
theological differences and unify behind the purpose of bring the Gospel to those
that do not know Christ as their savior.
A lost and dying world is seeking peace and hope in their lives. Let them see the church as a place where they
can find peace through the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
1. Smietana, Bob. Is Religious Liberty On The
Decline In America? www.religiousfreedomcoalition.org. [Online]
Religious Freedom Coalition, February 22, 2014. [Cited: October 22, 2016.]
http://www.religiousfreedomcoalition.org/2014/02/22/is-religious-liberty-on-the-decline-in-america/.
No comments:
Post a Comment