Divisions

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Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NIV)

10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought

Devotion:

            In our culture and also in our churches this is a time of great division. People just do appear to have either the interest or intent to agree on just about anything. This is not a new phenomenon; this is the very problem that Paul is addressing in the Corinthian church way back in the first century. The things we divide over have changed, but the basic fact that people seemingly cannot get along remains the same. While we can understand perhaps the culture devolving into a mass of disagreements it should not be so in the church of Jesus Christ.

            As a church we are called to unity. Jesus in his prayer for the disciples in the upper room in the gospel of John chapter 17 calls his first disciples to be one with each other as Jesus is one with the Father. We in the twenty-first century church have turned our backs on unity. Just as the Corinthians did so long ago. We have every conceivable flavor of Christianity from progressive to fundamentalist and Pentecostal to Eastern Orthodox. We gather in our own little tribes and seldom interact with those outside our chosen groups. Paul here decries this way of being church.

            What the church is not called to do is be in unity with the culture. However, we must be united within the church. The only ingredient that can hold us together across denominational differences is love as Jesus defines it. The love proclaimed by Jesus is not a warm fuzzy feeling, but a choice to love one another despite our differences. Love is the friction reducing compound that smooths over our differences and makes us into true disciples of Jesus. Unity is impossible without love. Let us give our lives over to following the command of Jesus to love our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

            As for our culture, it will remain divided and perhaps even descend into violence one against another. There are those sowing seeds of division throughout our culture and there is no one and nothing that will act to stop it. The church should be a witness of love and mutual respect in a culture that is decaying and losing its ability to tolerate those of different opinions. We must love our fellow believers and be the salt and light that Jesus called us to be in the sermon on the mount. Let us pray for God to help us keep unity within the body of believers and for us as Christians to be salt and light for our dark and decaying world.

Prayer

            O God we pray to you today. Grant us as believers in Jesus Christ to be united in the essentials of the faith. May we exhibit love for one another that stands in stark contrast with the hatred and strife we see in the culture. May your united church be a witness to a culture that is coming apart at the seams. Help us Lord to be your faithful servants in the world. May we bring peace where there is strife and division. Amen. 


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