Two on unity…
Here are two new posts on unity that I found very challenging.
Ted, at “Jesus community” (Didn’t I just link to him?), has a post called “unity in love“. He begins with this:
Our Lord delights in seeing his children getting along well together. In the love of Christ, this is how it’s to be. We’re to be united in spirit and of one mind, even though we don’t agree on everything. In most every case we’re to set disagreements aside. And when we do discuss them, to do so in love and agreeing in the end to not be disagreeable.
It seems that unity requires humility – both admitting that we may be wrong and that the other person may be right. That is not always easy for us, at least not by human nature. Perhaps it takes us living in a different nature to reach this unity in Christ.
Similarly, Terry, at “Sun Ministries” adds to the discussion with his post called “Unity“. He lists five things necessary for the church to recognize its unity. They are all important, but I think this one is especially crucial:
4. We must all become more Kingdom focused. Only when we value the growth of God’s Kingdom over the growth of our local church will we ever have opportunity for unity.
Are we willing to look beyond our “church” and understand that God is using people in His church to change His world? Perhaps we should do more sending than gathering…
I’ve been thinking of posting on this again… It’s very interesting that we see in Romans 14:19, Ephesians 4:3, and Hebrews 12:14 a call to “make every effort” to do what it takes to keep the unity of the Spirit or to make peace and edify. We also see in James 3:13-18 that true wisdom, from God, is wisdom that is pure and peacemaking, gentle and yielding, full of mercy and good fruit, without partiality and hypocrisy.
I don’t know about you, but I see little of that kind of wisdom when all the mud starts getting thrown over “sound doctrine.” Perhaps those who are seen as so wise in the scripture may not be seen thusly in the eyes of the Father?
Bryan,
“Make every effort” does seem to indicate that it will be hard work to maintain our unity in Christ. I’m looking forward to you post.
-Alan