Taking a step toward one another means loosening my grip on being right about everything. I’ve made it my pursuit over the last twenty years to search after biblical and theological truth through higher education and serious study of the Bible. I’m continually reminded of Paul’s words in his first letter to the church in Corinth, “Knowledge puffs up but love builds up.” The Bible has been read, re read, debated, and even fought over for thousands of years. When people hear something they do not agree with, they jump to accusations questioning their sincerity of following Jesus and the Bible. They misquote scriptures like, “The truth will set you free,” while assuming the truth being talked about is what they believe in rather than Jesus. The other popular verse to quote is, “They surround themselves with those who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear,” again assuming they aren’t falling into the same issues!
After my devotional last week, I received a lot of responses about the struggle of being in an echo chamber. We tend to nail down our beliefs and then never allow them to be questioned ever again. If someone challenges a conviction we have, we dismiss them and run them off. This is a sure way to make Jesus into our own image rather than continually going back to scripture to allow Jesus to make us into his image. Being open to someone else’s reading of scripture and worldview allows us to check our blind spots where we need to grow. You may not come to the same understanding they have but you can at least appreciate how they got there.
The Restoration Movement, of which our church is a part, was intended to be a unity movement. I sat in a number of classes growing up highlighting how we were right and everyone else was wrong. It always struck me funny though we aren’t the only ones who have taken this kind of view at different times. There is a moto from early in our movement that needs reviving: “In essential, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love/charity.”
The question I have is this, what do you consider essential for us to unify in? I see Christians drawing lines in the sand on a lot of different issues. Lines of political affiliation. Lines of worship styles. Lines of worldview. Lines of how the gospel should be lived out. Etc. I want to be very careful not to draw lines where Jesus intends for there to be bridges. If your knee is bowed to Jesus, then I want to accept you as a Sister or a Brother. This doesn’t mean to that I don’t have strong convictions about interpretations of Scripture and theology. I just want to make sure I am having these conversations with others who want to love and serve a God who met us in our brokenness, setting aside his right to be right, so that we could become like him in his glory. If God can do that in Jesus Christ, then I can do that in my relationships with those who want to figure out how to best love God and neighbor.
Stepping toward one another allows us to rub against one another in a way that allows iron to sharpen iron. If you are only stepping toward people who are “like minded” and think just like you then you are not iron sharpening iron. This kind of group think only leads to polarization and division. We need one another to deepen our understanding of God’s love. When we lean into God’s love between us rather than the conflict we perceive we will begin to understand the depth of God’s love.
Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
How long is your list of “essentials” for Christian unity?
What are Jesus’s essentials for Christian unity?
“Love one another…they will know you are my disciples if you love one another.” – John 13:34-35
Don’t draw lines of fellowship where Jesus intended bridges.