Think about the fact that it is possible to have loveless agreement on the hotbutton doctrinal issues of the day, but it is impossible to have loveless unity. Sure, it’s easier to love someone I agree with. But while I can fail to love a person I agree with, I cannot fail to love a brother in Christ whom I am in unity with. Without love, agreement is meaningless. Love covers a multitude of sins, is patient, longsuffering, forbearing. What are we to be forbearing of, if not disagreements and imperfections in each other?
This should tell us something about the nature of Christian unity. True Christian unity is not built by meetings and debates and programs and workshops intended to produce uniformity of opinion or consensus on a set of dogma, but by relationships, by love expressed toward each other, by the building up of the body in love.
Unity is reached in our common love, not our shared opinions. Agreement and consensus are byproducts of our love for Jesus Christ, his Word, and each other. Love comes first and agreement follows in importance, because if we can’t love each other, we will never be in agreement. Let’s love one another with the love Jesus Christ showed for us in our imperfection, and maybe, just maybe, we believers will start seeing eye to eye on more things. Let’s put it this way; it certainly could do no harm!
Loveless unity? Impossible.
Think about the fact that it is possible to have loveless agreement on the hotbutton doctrinal issues of the day, but it is impossible to have loveless unity. Sure, it’s easier to love someone I agree with. But while I can fail to love a person I agree with, I cannot fail to love a brother in Christ whom I am in unity with. Without love, agreement is meaningless. Love covers a multitude of sins, is patient, longsuffering, forbearing. What are we to be forbearing of, if not disagreements and imperfections in each other?
This should tell us something about the nature of Christian unity. True Christian unity is not built by meetings and debates and programs and workshops intended to produce uniformity of opinion or consensus on a set of dogma, but by relationships, by love expressed toward each other, by the building up of the body in love.
Unity is reached in our common love, not our shared opinions. Agreement and consensus are byproducts of our love for Jesus Christ, his Word, and each other. Love comes first and agreement follows in importance, because if we can’t love each other, we will never be in agreement. Let’s love one another with the love Jesus Christ showed for us in our imperfection, and maybe, just maybe, we believers will start seeing eye to eye on more things. Let’s put it this way; it certainly could do no harm!
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