Unity.... What is it worth??? In the face of a common enemy what is it worth? We are not called to agree on ever single detail of christian doctrine. But we are called to unity in the faith. So what is it worth? What would you give to have it? Would you consider it like possessing wisdom? Worth more than gold or silver. Is unity more important than protecting our "turf" or even having our feelings hurt?
More to come!
Monday, May 28, 2007
What is it worth???
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5 comments:
What's going on BIG Man! Hope and pray that all is well with you and the family. Caroline sent me this blog. Let's stay in touch.
TB
I have thought a lot about Biblical unity in the last 5 years after our church split. Unity and love in the Spirit are very important, but it doesn't mean blind loyalty. The one thing I can say for certain that is more important than unity is truth. The Heaven's Gate cult members were 100% unified. Did they really get picked up by the mothership?
And aren't we told to make EVERY effort to keep the unity?
Well, I will venture down a road many of you may not agree with...but it's my husband's blog, so I know I can say what I think...the Bible says the greatest of all the commands is to love your neighbor as yourself. Yes, truth is incredibly important, but lets be honest, do any of us have the market cornered on the whole truth? The Bible says we see and know in part until the day that we know as we are fully known (meet Jesus). The Lord gave me a picture yesterday that I intend to address more thoroughly on my blog sometime this week, but it was of a bride mutilated by her own doing, not a very pretty picture and I believe what God showed me was that this is the biggest weapon the enemy has right now, it's us wounding each other with our words. No, I am not foolish enough to believe we will all believe the same way about everything or that we can all be a part of the same church body, but I do believe we can all love and honor each other. We have had people leave our church in the last 2 years that we never thought would leave because the pastors sensed a change in direction from the Lord and followed it and many people didn't like it - me being one of those people who didn't like it, but God changed my heart. Even if He hadn't changed our hearts and we had left, Johnny and I had always, even in the midst of our frustration held the stance that if we leave we will leave on good terms. I believe there are times that your vision can differ from the pastor's vision and that may be the time that God is calling you somewhere else and that's OK, but I believe you can still love people in the midst of disagreeing with them. The Bible says we are all a part of the body,but we do not have the same gifts and anointings...thus some of us may be feet, while others of us may be the mouth or the eye...God gave me a funny vision of our church a few years ago when people were leaving...it was of the big toe... He said to me "The Rock is like the big toe, it provides stability and the ablitiy to walk, but no one really understands what life would be like without it until they don't have it. Can we not appreciate that we all have a different place in the body with different functions and get on with fighting the enemy instead of each other?
36Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing." 37Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Acts 15
Later Paul writes this...
Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 2 Tim. 4:11
We are going to have dissagreements whenever we have relationships. If you have a relationship with no disagreement I dare say you might not have much of a relationship. It's in how we handle the disagreement and eventually how we overcome it. Unity does not equal location nor interaction. Unity is that we recognize a common goal of seeing the lost saved, baptized, and discipled. Paul and Barnabas continued to grow the church. We can take a number of specific leads from Barnabas and Paul but this is the focus; love. What is it worth? I would say let's determine what you're selling. We are, as a body, trying to win the lost to Christ. I feel that a lot of our arguments are about personal kingdom building. In most church disputes if you took either side you would not see people led to Christ. But with Paul and Barnabus both continued to lead the growing church and lead people to Christ. So when I'm asked "what is it worth":
If its unity for the sake of my ego or others feelings then it's not worth much.
If unity means furthering the Kingdom of God and leading the lost to Jesus, then it's worth everything. In the case of Paul and Barnabus they remained in unity in their vision and goals. So define unity and think you will get a lot of your answer there.
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