Christians can be the nitpickiest people on God's planet. Sometimes we are taught to be this way, and other times we are just heartless. It makes me wonder, how many Christians are CINO's (Christians in name only)? As a web-content creator, I've been blessed to meet some of the world's finest folks, many of which follow this blog. But as with any creator who puts their thoughts on display in a space where others may comment, there are those who will crawl out of the woodwork to voice opposition to what you've done. That's OK! I have learned this comes with the territory and truly it's a part of ministry in general, web content creator or not.
People struggle to overcome their differences, though, which is a shame. I come from a Baptist background where much of my family is. I've moved from there to Pentecostal circles and pastor a non-denominational church. My close friends range from Church of God to Lutheran to Catholic, and we all can celebrate how good God is and what Jesus has done in our lives. I continue to be amazed at how GOOD some people are at being Christlike who are in denominations that other "Christians" demonize. Jesus was not a Christian, you see. He was God wrapped in the flesh of a first century Jewish man who taught us that loving God and loving our neighbor was "where it's at". Naturally, this drove the religous minds of the day absolutely batty. Paul came along later, scolding Christians for their childishness and divisiveness. He went so far as to instruct us to turn away from anyone who causes divisions within the body. (Rom 16:17). But notice this:
"...equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, Eph 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God..."
Honestly, Paul is writing the longest sentence EVER, so I grabbed that excerpt. Unity of the what? Faith. Not unity of the beliefs. Not unity of the doctrine. Unity of the faith! Perhaps Paul understood something about people that Christians have largely missed: people are different. They interpret scripture through the lense of their life experiences, and that is okay. We all have the opportunity to miss the point. We are even obligated to mess up on occasion. Wrong beliefs can take any or all of us down the wrong road for a season. If so, we hit our dead end and turn around (being lower on gasoline but higher on knowledge). Meanwhile, we can still unite in our faith and knowledge of the Son of God. He is Good. Amen?
