ARE THERE CONTENTIONS AMONG YOU?

From the West Meadow
By Pastor Wesley Higgins

Have you ever been a member of the “one true church”? It’s interesting–you spend a lot of time looking down at other Christians and building your group up. You may even have a list of “proofs” that your group is the “one true church”.

We all have to have reasons for going to the church we attend. There’s nothing wrong with that–the problem comes when we start comparing or judging others as “less Christian” than ourselves. Paul dealt with a similar problem among the Corinthians. “It has been declared...that there are contentions among you...each of you says, ‘I am of Paul’, or ‘I am of Apollos’, or ‘I am of Cephas’, or ‘I am of Christ.’” Paul then asks, “Is Christ divided?” (I Corinthians 1:11-13)

That’s a good question. Is Christ divided, or is it our traditions and our doctrines that cause incompatibilities and division?

There is a true church, whose head is Christ. It consists of all Christians everywhere–not by race or social status, not by doctrine or church affiliation or denomination (I Corinthians 12:13), but by the spirit of God (I Corinthians 12:4).

Jesus gave the one sign by which the world would know who His followers are: love for each other. “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) How are you doing? Is all your time spent exposing each others’ faults or are you supporting and building each other up?

In I Corinthians12 Paul likened the functioning of the church with that of the human body. He pointed out that race or social status doesn’t matter–if you are going to function effectively as Christ’s church, then you must function together as a body. “Indeed there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” (I Corinthians 12:20-21)

Can you imagine a body trying to walk down the street with one foot tripping the other because it doesn’t like how the other foot walks? Or the hands covering the mouth because they disagree with what the mouth is saying? It sounds ridiculous, yet that pictures all too well the body of Christ today. Instead of walking in harmony, each part working fitly together–suffering when one member suffers or rejoicing when one member is honored (I Corinthians 12:26)–we seem to be tripping and hindering every chance we get.

We are called to one body, whose head is Christ. We are called to function together toward one goal: love. Love toward God, love toward one another...love toward the world.

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