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.
Showing posts with label unity in Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unity in Christ. Show all posts
Friday, June 15, 2018
Friday, August 4, 2017
Enjoying a healthy body? .......... Parables 623
December 29, 1998
Rheumatoid arthritis and AIDS are quite different disorders but both are related to the auto-immune system. In RA, the body becomes confused and attacks its own joint fluid as an enemy. Without lubrication, bones grind and wear against each other causing pain and disability.
In AIDS, the auto-immune system is not confused; it just quits. The body loses its capacity to fight external enemies and dies from illnesses such as pneumonia.
While the human body is an amazing organism, these two conditions illustrate how one part working contrary to its intended purpose produces painful and even deadly results.
The New Testament uses the human body as a metaphor for spiritual unity. Those who believe in Christ should function together, just as the parts of our body should.
For instance, the Apostle Paul talks about spiritual gifts by pointing out that each believer has a different gift, just as each part of the body has a different job to do. The eye is not the hand and the hand is not the eye. Each needs the other so all can function.
As a body has many members so it can work properly, so does the Body of Christ. This analogy helps Christians appreciate both our oneness and our differences. It also illustrates the importance of working together. When each part of a healthy body cooperates, that body is strong and productive. The Bible says, “From Christ the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and build itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
However, this analogy also can describe what happens when Christians set themselves against one another. If we do not appreciate our differences, reject unity and refuse to cooperate, we are like a malfunctioning auto-immune system. The results are just as disastrous.
In love, we function like healthy bones and ligaments but if we do not keep ourselves in right relationships with mutual support and instead begin fighting, we are like rheumatoid arthritis. We are destroying necessary “lubrication” and begin to wear and grate against each other.
Loving one another is vital, not only to our health but to our appearance. Jesus said the world will evaluate us by our love (or lack of it) for one another. If the Body of Christ malfunctions, we experience personal and corporate pain and become crippled, even totally disabled, in our ministry to others. Besides, the Bible says if one member hurts, all hurt. In-fighting is like shooting ourselves in the foot.
A malfunctioning Body of Christians has another problem suggested by the analogy and how a human body suffers if it has AIDS. Spiritually, the Bible is clear that the Christian struggle “is not against flesh and blood” but is against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” When we pit ourselves against each other, we become helpless against external enemies. Satan and the powers of evil can easily defeat us.
Paul wrote that if we “yield to God and resist the devil, he will flee” from us. Notice what comes first: yielding to God. The Bible defines that simply as loving Him and loving one another. Jesus said that we show our love for God by loving other Christians.
Everyone wants a healthy body. We do what we can with rest, proper diet, exercise and regular care. In fact, these exercises occupy a major portion of our lives. What a difference it would make if we gave as much attention and effort toward maintaining health in the Body of Christ.
Rheumatoid arthritis and AIDS are quite different disorders but both are related to the auto-immune system. In RA, the body becomes confused and attacks its own joint fluid as an enemy. Without lubrication, bones grind and wear against each other causing pain and disability.
In AIDS, the auto-immune system is not confused; it just quits. The body loses its capacity to fight external enemies and dies from illnesses such as pneumonia.
While the human body is an amazing organism, these two conditions illustrate how one part working contrary to its intended purpose produces painful and even deadly results.
The New Testament uses the human body as a metaphor for spiritual unity. Those who believe in Christ should function together, just as the parts of our body should.
For instance, the Apostle Paul talks about spiritual gifts by pointing out that each believer has a different gift, just as each part of the body has a different job to do. The eye is not the hand and the hand is not the eye. Each needs the other so all can function.
As a body has many members so it can work properly, so does the Body of Christ. This analogy helps Christians appreciate both our oneness and our differences. It also illustrates the importance of working together. When each part of a healthy body cooperates, that body is strong and productive. The Bible says, “From Christ the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and build itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
However, this analogy also can describe what happens when Christians set themselves against one another. If we do not appreciate our differences, reject unity and refuse to cooperate, we are like a malfunctioning auto-immune system. The results are just as disastrous.
In love, we function like healthy bones and ligaments but if we do not keep ourselves in right relationships with mutual support and instead begin fighting, we are like rheumatoid arthritis. We are destroying necessary “lubrication” and begin to wear and grate against each other.
Loving one another is vital, not only to our health but to our appearance. Jesus said the world will evaluate us by our love (or lack of it) for one another. If the Body of Christ malfunctions, we experience personal and corporate pain and become crippled, even totally disabled, in our ministry to others. Besides, the Bible says if one member hurts, all hurt. In-fighting is like shooting ourselves in the foot.
A malfunctioning Body of Christians has another problem suggested by the analogy and how a human body suffers if it has AIDS. Spiritually, the Bible is clear that the Christian struggle “is not against flesh and blood” but is against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” When we pit ourselves against each other, we become helpless against external enemies. Satan and the powers of evil can easily defeat us.
Paul wrote that if we “yield to God and resist the devil, he will flee” from us. Notice what comes first: yielding to God. The Bible defines that simply as loving Him and loving one another. Jesus said that we show our love for God by loving other Christians.
Everyone wants a healthy body. We do what we can with rest, proper diet, exercise and regular care. In fact, these exercises occupy a major portion of our lives. What a difference it would make if we gave as much attention and effort toward maintaining health in the Body of Christ.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Unity in diversity is possible! ................ Parables 344
November 17, 1992
A united Canada — was that what the national referendum was all about? More specifically, did those 50% plus people who voted NO do so from a united opinion?
Unity is not easily defined. In this case it is certainly not unanimity or harmony of thought on the issue. While the final YES or NO decisions may have marked two basic camps, the voters within those camps marked their ballots as they did for a great variety of reasons. For instance, some said NO because they felt too many concessions were made to various groups; some because they felt there were too few concessions.
An interesting display of what can also temporarily unite people was the outcome and final game of baseball’s World Series. Blue Jay fans were united by their joy over the victory and they celebrated together as one big happy family, for at least a few hours. However, one can hardly say it was a genuinely unified group. For one thing, on the very same day, likely half of them voted YES and the other half NO in the referendum.
To go to the other extreme, could we say a group is united when each and every one of them think exactly the same way about everything? One of my relatives belongs to a religious group that claims that kind of unity. He says if one person has a dissenting opinion, he or she is no longer allowed to remain in the group. Most of us generally do not think of unity as something that is legislated and consider such a group not really united but in some sort of dictatorship or maybe a brainwashed condition.
Christians have been accused of being brainwashed too, but what the Bible says about unity shows this is not so. For one thing, we are supposed to “strive for unity” and “dwell together in unity” commandments that go against our sinful bent to squabble. Like the referendum illustrates, unity is not easy to achieve.
However, biblical unity is also not unanimity — at least on every issue. We do not all have to think alike because freedom in Christ makes room for many varying understandings and interpretations. For example, one might vote YES on private schooling and another NO to the same issue. We do not get ousted for disagreeing on issues like that. Instead, our unity runs much deeper in that we are expected and even commanded to be unified over certain basic issues. In those issues, if we do not agree, we cannot be genuinely Christian.
Our unity comes from common beliefs. These are aligned with the world view presented in the Bible. We agree concerning God, Christ, the nature of man and the means of salvation. All Christians believe our salvation is by grace, through faith in Christ. Like baseball fans, we certainly have many occasions to rejoice together in those truths that unite us.
Christian unity not only allows diversity but even depends on it. Each believer has unique experiences and gifts that would be lost to the church if everyone had to think and act alike. It is God’s goal to bring us together to help all live for God in the fullest possible way, using our individual strengths for the good of others, “equipping us...and edifying us... until we all come to the unity of the faith...”
In that practical way, diverse ideas help build our unity, but the principle of Christian unity is not established or even developed by Christians. It is not a matter of what theologians decide or lists of church rules or taking a vote. Real unity is a matter of the heart. We could have no unity if it were not for the Holy Spirit who supplies it. When each Christian listens to and obeys Him, there is oneness among us. When we do not, we are divided.
For that reason, what the church (and Canada) needs to unite us will never be supplied by a vote, a document, nor a baseball team.
A united Canada — was that what the national referendum was all about? More specifically, did those 50% plus people who voted NO do so from a united opinion?
Unity is not easily defined. In this case it is certainly not unanimity or harmony of thought on the issue. While the final YES or NO decisions may have marked two basic camps, the voters within those camps marked their ballots as they did for a great variety of reasons. For instance, some said NO because they felt too many concessions were made to various groups; some because they felt there were too few concessions.
An interesting display of what can also temporarily unite people was the outcome and final game of baseball’s World Series. Blue Jay fans were united by their joy over the victory and they celebrated together as one big happy family, for at least a few hours. However, one can hardly say it was a genuinely unified group. For one thing, on the very same day, likely half of them voted YES and the other half NO in the referendum.
To go to the other extreme, could we say a group is united when each and every one of them think exactly the same way about everything? One of my relatives belongs to a religious group that claims that kind of unity. He says if one person has a dissenting opinion, he or she is no longer allowed to remain in the group. Most of us generally do not think of unity as something that is legislated and consider such a group not really united but in some sort of dictatorship or maybe a brainwashed condition.
Christians have been accused of being brainwashed too, but what the Bible says about unity shows this is not so. For one thing, we are supposed to “strive for unity” and “dwell together in unity” commandments that go against our sinful bent to squabble. Like the referendum illustrates, unity is not easy to achieve.
However, biblical unity is also not unanimity — at least on every issue. We do not all have to think alike because freedom in Christ makes room for many varying understandings and interpretations. For example, one might vote YES on private schooling and another NO to the same issue. We do not get ousted for disagreeing on issues like that. Instead, our unity runs much deeper in that we are expected and even commanded to be unified over certain basic issues. In those issues, if we do not agree, we cannot be genuinely Christian.
Our unity comes from common beliefs. These are aligned with the world view presented in the Bible. We agree concerning God, Christ, the nature of man and the means of salvation. All Christians believe our salvation is by grace, through faith in Christ. Like baseball fans, we certainly have many occasions to rejoice together in those truths that unite us.
Christian unity not only allows diversity but even depends on it. Each believer has unique experiences and gifts that would be lost to the church if everyone had to think and act alike. It is God’s goal to bring us together to help all live for God in the fullest possible way, using our individual strengths for the good of others, “equipping us...and edifying us... until we all come to the unity of the faith...”
In that practical way, diverse ideas help build our unity, but the principle of Christian unity is not established or even developed by Christians. It is not a matter of what theologians decide or lists of church rules or taking a vote. Real unity is a matter of the heart. We could have no unity if it were not for the Holy Spirit who supplies it. When each Christian listens to and obeys Him, there is oneness among us. When we do not, we are divided.
For that reason, what the church (and Canada) needs to unite us will never be supplied by a vote, a document, nor a baseball team.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Creating Unity ................ Parables 311
March 31, 1992
A Moose Jaw journalist recently noted that two-dollar wheat prices have bridged the generation gap between old and young farmers. Now they are all in the same boat and have something to talk about.
There are certain situations in life that tend to do just that — bring people together. One of them is a mutual problem, in this case the struggle to survive in a profession threatened by European grain subsidies, something neither young or old can do anything about.
Other situations that brings people together are happy events and sad events: weddings, births, graduations and funerals, recovery and illness, sunshine and tornadoes. National celebrations can do it too: Christmas, Easter, even Canada Day.
As humans, we tend to need something to push us into harmony. Fighting is easier, especially if the other person is different in some way than we are, a threat to us. Older people get pushed out by up-and-coming youth; young people feel intimidated by the confidence of the experienced. Men feel put-down by women; women feel put-down by men. Children are ostracized by each other on the playgrounds and in the classroom. Conflict is so common. Unity does not happen as easily.
In spite of how we can argue and drive wedges through the heart of our relationships, God intended people relate to one another harmoniously. He desires unity, a we are in this together attitude that shows itself in the way we treat one another.
However, while outside events can serve as a catalyst, the unity God has in mind is not one forced by externals. Rather, because we are made in His image, He wants us to reflect the unity He Himself experiences in His own nature. He is a God of various attributes and distinctive qualities (just as we are a variety of people) yet He is in complete harmony with Himself, all the time, no matter what is happening in His world. Furthermore, His unity is as much a part of His nature as our propensity to fight and disagree is a part of ours.
The Bible has a lot to say about that kind of unity: it is commanded; Jesus prayed that we would have it and He even provided it — but it certainly does not happen without our resistance. Doesn’t resistance seem strange, given the pleasure and security we enjoy when we have peace with other people?
Perhaps we do not fight unity directly but indirectly. Remember, it is a unity that does not depend on externals. Instead, it depends on the internal reality of His Spirit in control of our lives. It is that control that we fight, just as we resist attempts by anyone or anything else to control us.
The possibility of this unity is not the only appeal for non-resistance to God but it is a valid appeal. Without His unity, Paul says, “You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?”
If Christians depend on externals for agreement, then we are acting like everyone else and simply denying the power of God to bring unity. When that happens, then calamities like $2 wheat prices are the only forces that can bring us together.
A Moose Jaw journalist recently noted that two-dollar wheat prices have bridged the generation gap between old and young farmers. Now they are all in the same boat and have something to talk about.
There are certain situations in life that tend to do just that — bring people together. One of them is a mutual problem, in this case the struggle to survive in a profession threatened by European grain subsidies, something neither young or old can do anything about.
Other situations that brings people together are happy events and sad events: weddings, births, graduations and funerals, recovery and illness, sunshine and tornadoes. National celebrations can do it too: Christmas, Easter, even Canada Day.
As humans, we tend to need something to push us into harmony. Fighting is easier, especially if the other person is different in some way than we are, a threat to us. Older people get pushed out by up-and-coming youth; young people feel intimidated by the confidence of the experienced. Men feel put-down by women; women feel put-down by men. Children are ostracized by each other on the playgrounds and in the classroom. Conflict is so common. Unity does not happen as easily.
In spite of how we can argue and drive wedges through the heart of our relationships, God intended people relate to one another harmoniously. He desires unity, a we are in this together attitude that shows itself in the way we treat one another.
However, while outside events can serve as a catalyst, the unity God has in mind is not one forced by externals. Rather, because we are made in His image, He wants us to reflect the unity He Himself experiences in His own nature. He is a God of various attributes and distinctive qualities (just as we are a variety of people) yet He is in complete harmony with Himself, all the time, no matter what is happening in His world. Furthermore, His unity is as much a part of His nature as our propensity to fight and disagree is a part of ours.
The Bible has a lot to say about that kind of unity: it is commanded; Jesus prayed that we would have it and He even provided it — but it certainly does not happen without our resistance. Doesn’t resistance seem strange, given the pleasure and security we enjoy when we have peace with other people?
Perhaps we do not fight unity directly but indirectly. Remember, it is a unity that does not depend on externals. Instead, it depends on the internal reality of His Spirit in control of our lives. It is that control that we fight, just as we resist attempts by anyone or anything else to control us.
The possibility of this unity is not the only appeal for non-resistance to God but it is a valid appeal. Without His unity, Paul says, “You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?”
If Christians depend on externals for agreement, then we are acting like everyone else and simply denying the power of God to bring unity. When that happens, then calamities like $2 wheat prices are the only forces that can bring us together.
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