GOD-HONORING UNITY
Bro. Waterloo told our deacons that a vote almost inherently invites division. It makes people take sides, and that means someone’s side won’t be chosen.
A pastor recently posted something to the effect of, “I’ve been in the ministry long enough to realize that a true test of someone’s faith is how they respond when they don’t get their way.” It is revealing.
And it speaks to unity, too. I put in the church email last Monday that unity is not uniformity. We don’t all have to be identical (uniformity) in order to be going to same direction (unity).
What hurts the body is when there are disagreements that are handled without grace. Church can (and to some extend should) be messy because we are a group of humans. We live in our flesh and battle the fleshly nature and will not be freed from this flesh until “this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality.”
In the meantime, we are a body, and God desires unity in the body.
We were recently in Romans 12:16–18:
“Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”
Can you say with biblical confidence that you are living this way?
This is spirit-filled living. When someone is spirit-filled, their demeanor goes from me-first to you-first. What comes out of their lives is good:
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…
When my kids bump my coffee cup, coffee spills out. When your cup gets bumped, what spills out? Galatians 5:19? Or Galatians 5:22?
-Pastor Ryan