How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!What is a picture of peace to you? Now oil running down over my beard and on my clothing is not my picture of peace and harmony in the church.
It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes.
It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. (Psalm 133:1-3)
It was then, however, and they thought it was great.
But what is your picture? What would peace and harmony in the church look like?
What would unity look like?
Would it be potlucks? Happy, smiling people gathered together around tables, laughing, joking, talking, kids running around, everyone reluctant to leave?
Would it be a long worship service in which everyone participated in some way? A song, or a prayer, or a word, or just a comment?
Would it just be the knowledge that when you went to church Sunday morning, nothing bad had happened throughout the week to the church? No splits, no arguments, no “doctrinal disputes”?
Whatever it would be, it was what the psalmist, David himself, said when he talked about his people being together.
The apostle Paul said: I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. (1 Corinthians 1:10)
Don’t argue, he said. Don’t dispute. Don’t help make that atmosphere of anger and irritation that is so surely a church killer.
Think about each other and the effects your words will have on each other. And do it before you speak, not afterwards. He said let there be no divisions.
In other words, there never has been and there never will be a good, valid, God-ordained reason for a church split. He said to work it out.
Jesus said: By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35). It is not by our doctrine that people will know us. It will not be by the way we worship, or the tongues we speak or the prophecies we present or anything else.
It will be by the oil of our love and our unity poured out on the church, covering us with his grace.
The old song said, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” it has to start somewhere. Why don’t you be the first one to pour out the oil?
No comments:
Post a Comment
To comment, post your comment and click the anonymous button. It would be nice if you signed it so I could know who you are.
You are welcome to say anything you want as long as it is nice. If I don't like it, or it is ugly, I will take it off, place it into the garbage disposal, grind it up, and allow it to be flushed into the Gulf of Mexico where it will be eaten by a fish and then excreted where it will lie on the bottom of the ocean until it is covered up by other comments.