Friday, June 15, 2018

The mark of genuine Christianity ............. Parables 755

June 11, 2002

“You mean to tell me there are people from seven different denominations in your Bible study group? That’s amazing!”

During the late 1970's when we lived in Fort Saskatchewan, I attended a Bible study that began with two people. It grew, evolved and continued for years, and may still be going to this day. One of its more distinctive features was that ladies from several denominations came and felt right at home in this group.

More than one person expressed amazement at our unity. A common perception is that Christians from different churches do not get along — that we argue over faith issues and other things, thus our reason for maintaining various denominations. Sadly, that is sometimes true, but it is not always the case.

The fact of a variety of denominations demonstrates the freedom God gives Christians to express our diversity. We prefer varying worship styles. Some like older hymns; others prefer contemporary music. We practice various modes of baptism, ways of outreach, and so on.

The New Testament church had distinctives too. The church at Corinth was filled with flamboyant Gentile converts. The church in Ephesus was a mixed group of Jews and Gentiles. Cultural differences made each congregation unique.

Whatever the mix, each group believed in the same gospel and were instructed with the basic commandment: love one another. Jesus told His disciples, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The apostle Paul added, “You are called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”

Paul gave Christians no excuse to fight and Jesus gave unbelieving people a criteria by which to judge the church. If believers fight among themselves, we become a news item and a nasty taste in peoples’ mouths. Even those outside the church know we ought to love each other.

Unfortunately, when Christian churches show exceptional examples of love, the public rarely hears about it. For instance, last year when my nephew died of cancer, my brother and his wife knew his funeral would draw too many people to fit into their church. A church of another denomination lovingly offered the use of their larger building.

A few weeks ago, an even more remarkable example surfaced. In January, a congregation in Calgary heard of another church of a different denomination that was growing rapidly and trying to raise money to build a larger building. The first group voted unanimously to give $100,000 to the second church.

Together, these people of God demonstrated their love in an expression of tangible support. It didn’t matter to them that the other church had a different style of worship, or varied from them in their statement of faith. Nor did it matter that the other church is growing rapidly, a possible threat to their own size. They sacrificed a huge offering of financial support anyway.

Differences could be a barrier but they do not need to be. Christ not only tells us to love each other anyway, but we can do it because He lives in us and loves us. Because of His love, we can love each other.

As Paul said, we need to watch out for that old sinful nature. We have the freedom to be different but not the freedom to be greedy, proud, or selfish. Instead, we must find ways in our freedom, to love one another. Jesus makes it clear: if we are not living out our freedom in a genuine love for each other, then the rest of the world has every right to wonder if we belong to Him.

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