In a local Christian Bible Fellowship last week the topic was on Gentleness. We read from Philippians 4:5, “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” (NIV)
Before this verse Paul pleads with Euodia and Syntyche to “agree with each other in the Lord” (NIV), or “be of the same mind” (KJV).
In his sermon the pastor went on to expound, “What are we about as a church? Well our whole model says we’re about building relationships united in Christ. Not in feeling, not in just happiness, but looking to Christ.”
The comment made me reflect on recent things I have read from a book by Shawn McCraney, Knife to a Gunfight. Shawn laments how foolish Christians appear to the rest of the world at the way we use the scriptures as a weapon to beat each other up with instead of as a tool to unite us in love.
“When will Christians realize that the Bible is a gift from God to encourage and guide individual believers, and not a manual for believers to use to beat and attack either each other or those who do not subscribe to its contents? How on earth will we ever get people to want to seek its contents if we use it as a club?” (page 29)
As I reflected I found myself lamenting along with Paul, “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” 1 Cor 1:10 (NIV)
Now isn’t this a strange dilemma in the body of Christ? How is it that we teach tolerance and love, while at the same time insisting on agreement to the Word?
Tolerance requires disagreement. Insisting on agreement is not tolerance, but it’s opposite. If the Word clearly teaches against disputations and contentions among Christ’s followers, is it possible to have disagreement without contention and divisions among us? Can we still disagree without contending, or are Christians no better than the rest of the world when it comes to that level of maturity?
I think the following counsel from Joseph Smith is relevant here, “If you do not accuse each other, God will not accuse you… If you throw a cloak of charity over my sins, I will over yours – for charity covereth a multitude of sins.” (Joseph Smith History of the Church 4:445)