Saturday, May 30, 2015

Unity in the bond of Peace

Christians can so easily get caught up in the work of the ministry.  Of course there is tons of work to do, but is it right to disregard our testimony to others?
This reminds me of the one another verses throughout the Bible: Receive one another as in Romans 15:7, Admonish one another as in Romans 15:14 and Colossians 3:16 and Submit yourselves one to another as in Ephesians 5:21and I Peter 5:6.  In the midst of all the work of the ministry, it is needful to be reminded of these verses, often. The church is also God's program for this age of Grace, but there seems to be less and less interest in learning what the Bible says or even serving God. 

In Romans 15, God commands us to receive one another.  This is similar to the idea of receiving a gift from someone.   I remember as a kid at Christmas time that I got gifts that I didn't want or like, but because of who it was from, I had to teach myself to receive that gift with thanksgiving.   Everyone that is called by God, whatever role it is, needs to be received (and will always be received by God) or need to receive others.  In other words, all Christians need to receive there fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, disregarding the role in which we are called to serve, either a pastor to the congregants or the congregants to a pastor.

Later on in the same chapter, there is a command to admonish.a. There is a LOT of work LOT that goes into the ministry, both physical activity and spiritual exercises.  The Greek word for admonish is to warn and no one likes to be warned of potential dangers.  It is usually taken as very critical, however, if Biblical, very necessary.  Romans 15:14 speaks of admonishing one another, but Colossians 3:16 is a little more detailed.  God exhorts us to admonish every man, in all wisdom (consistent with Col. 1:28).  Of course, God's Word is where wisdom is found and, specifically,  the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all  wisdom.   Back to Romans 15, which seems to indicate that all  believers are able to admonish a brother or sister, not just dependant on a believers role in ministry.

Lastly,  believers are commanded to submit.  This is hard for anyone, not just believers.   Yes, we are told to submit to others, but when caught up in the work of the ministry,  we want things to be done "our" way.  The busier we are, it seems the more blinded we are of the bigger picture, which of course, is leading to, and teaching others more of, Christ.  Ephesians 5:21 is a powerful verse and reminds us to submit one to another, regardless of our ministry role, in the fear of God.  As was mentioned earlier,  the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, all wisdom.  The Lord will gives us wisfom, even when submitting. Because ultimately,  it is God we are to submit to. 

There is another command found in Ephesians,  the command to endeavor or strive to keep unity.  There is so much involved with keeping unity among believers, especially when working in ministry.  Sometimes Christians overlook some areas of life in order for unity, but  when God's word is in question in a situation, of course we should obey God's Word. For life issues in the lives of our brothers and sisters,  unity is of prime importance.  God has a reason for brothers and sister to strive for peaceful unions.  According to this verse, with peace comes unity and to become a disunity because of life issues, disunity is also in disregard to all points previously mentioned.

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