Unity
“Master,”
said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop
him, because he is not one of us.”
“Do
not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.” Luke
9:49-50
In the New Testament, John the Baptist, Jesus, the
apostles, all faced the same ridicule and harassment from people who were
supposed to share the same beliefs. The people of Jesus’ time clearly didn’t
embrace His message. The threat from the inside grew much stronger. Small
differences in viewpoint grew legs and took over, causing the death of Jesus and
His disciples.
Look at it. The much of the adversity is not coming from
the outside. It isn’t people with dissimilar beliefs. The people of the Old
Testament chose other gods. The people of the New Testament chose different
paths but all of them are fully aware of the Most High God. Especially in the New
Testament, the Pharisees and Sadducees saw themselves as followers of the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Neither the Pharisees or the Sadducees believed that Jesus
was the Messiah. They hated him but that didn’t make them agree with each
other. They may have had a common enemy but they weren’t friends. Dissension
among the ranks, if you will, was just getting worse.
As time goes on, the biggest battles aren’t coming from the
outside. The biggest dissension is among people who are supposed to share the
same beliefs.
Today we talk about religious freedom. Christians, rightly
so, feel attacked on all sides. We are asked to be tolerant of people of other
faiths. Within our churches we are sometimes asked to be tolerant of people
whose behaviors are abhorrent, against the Word. You’d think that would bond us
together as a group but it doesn’t.
You hear one denomination refer to another as those
__________. “Thankfully I’m not a
___________. They do some crazy stuff.” Each denomination, Roman Catholic,
Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Anglican, does things just a bit differently
than the others. We share the same basic beliefs. We approach them differently
and suddenly there it is conflict among the believers.
As Christians today we face enough opposition from the
outside. We are continually being asked to water down our beliefs and convictions
in the name of tolerance. We are mocked and opposed as surely as our
forefathers were. Yet, we’ve taken infighting to a whole new level.
What does that say to the people on the outside looking in?
It says that we’re great talkers but not such great followers. It may say to
them that we are all talk and no substance.
Jesus commanded us to love one another. That means the
Catholics need to love the Methodists. The Methodists need to love the Baptist
and so on and so on. We all need to love each other. If the world, the naysayers,
the finger pointers, could see us walking in love that would speak volumes. If
they heard us saying, “Well we do it a little differently at our church but God
bless you. We’ll keep you in our prayers and please keep us in yours.” If they
could see us evangelizing together, serving together, co-operating, that would
make our detractors sit up and take notice.
Instead they hear us say, “Ugh, I would never go to your
church. You people don’t do_____ the way you’re supposed to do it.” Hmm…. How
inviting is that?
We have to learn to love God and our
neighbors, even the ones who go to that church
across the street. You know, that one
where they do things differently.
It seems to me that we are becoming our own worst enemy. We
may have different worship styles, that’s fine. The music, the length of the service,
the details aren’t important as long as what shows is that we love the same God,
the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s time to stop arguing and
unite in love.
Comments
Post a Comment