My title for today’s post of course comes from Forrest Gump. You probably remember the scene. Nobody wants Forrest to sit next to them on the school bus because he is different. My thoughts are on unity in Christ. What unifies Christians together? Or I guess I should say, what should unify us as believers? Because for many people those two things are completely different. This post stems from a discussion that is not all that uncommon, or at least I fear that it is not uncommon. I have recently heard of a discussion that some devout Christians were having that discussed differing view points on a certain topic that the church (and when I say church I am almost always meaning all churches) is facing today. The result of this conversation was somewhere along the lines of if people don’t agree with us, they need to go somewhere else, they aren’t welcome here.
If we find out that we have different opinions on a certain part of our faith does that mean that we can’t still worship and serve Christ together? Is this what we are called to? A life of bickering about superficial issues. I suggest you look up and listen to Justin McRoberts’ song, At the cross. It addresses this issue. To quote part of the song,
“So am I praying in the wrong way? Do I worship on the wrong day? What are we fighting for? So I, I’ll meet you at the cross. If that’s the only place we meet its fine by me.”
And isn’t that the most important thing? Jesus Christ and the cross he bore for all of us (even the people who believe a little differently than I do).
“Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit, and bind yourselves together with peace. We are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future. There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and there is only one God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us all.” Ephesians 4: 3-6
About Me
- David Willy
- I am a husband and a father and I pray that I will continue to look more like Christ to my wife and children each day. I pray that all that I do will be used to give glory to the Father and Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for this post. It always saddens me when I hear stories of people saying these things. I hope that we can influence people to see and understand that unity does not mean we agree on everything but that we're drawn together by the Cross and it is there that all differences go away.
ReplyDeletePat always says, "Everyone's theology is screwed up." It's so easy to think everyone means everyone but you and me.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine if people really left the church everytime differences in theology came to light? We'd all end up going to our own individual church. The Church of David Willy, The Holy Seprechule of Pat, Hannah's Church on the Hill, Grace's Church of Always Right, etc. We've already done it to a degree. Just look at how many denominations we have and how many "sects" we have within each denomination.
ReplyDeleteJeff G.