Harmony is important for the mission of
the church. But harmony is not agreement
for the sake of agreement, nor is it the ubiquitous, “We’ll just have to agree
to disagree.” We are called to think in
Christ. Conflict, then, is an
opportunity to glorify God as we come together in God’s Law to do what He has
called us to do, and live together in His Gospel being forgiven and forgiving
one another.
Too often we Christians walk away from
conflict for the sake of false harmony.
We then experience no reconciliation.
Being in Christ, we see our sins and confess them. Instead of glossing over differences, we dig
into them – speaking the truth in love, with gentleness and respect – and take
them to the Lord in prayer, studying His Word so that we can come out thinking
the same way; God’s way. Ultimately our
opinion does not matter when we are submitting ourselves to our Lord
Jesus.
One of the keys to godly reconciliation
is found in verse 5: “Let your gentleness be known to all.” The word gentleness can also mean kindness,
and that might be a better image for what we are being called to do here. Kindness requires a conscious choice and
shows in our conduct during conflict and in all our dealings with others. Kindness fits nicely with Christian love,
because it focuses outward. Kindness does
not allow people to harm themselves or be harmed, so we reach out to the
hurting, those we are separated from, and those who are lost in unbelief.
Much of life draws us to the least
common denominator, and we often respond to others in the lowest ways. We are called out of being the least into
God’s glory. We do well to think about
that, and to rejoice in the things that God rejoices in. As forgiven citizens of God’s kingdom, we
cling to Calvary’s Cross for forgiveness and as our glory. We run to Jesus’ empty tomb to know our
salvation is won, and we follow our risen Lord.
And as we follow Jesus, telling others about Him, we become an example
of God’s reconciliation. Ours is a real
message of grace that as we follow Jesus, we can also share the Good News that
will lead others to reconciliation, too.
Father in Heaven, through your Paul you have
given many good thoughts on how to live.
Help me to follow him, and in so doing follow Jesus so that I might lead
someone to Him, too. Amen
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