Brothers and sisters,

There is something that is very much on my heart concerning maintaining the unity of the Spirit here in all of the posts.

We know that the enemy is the accuser of the brethren and his goal is to divide us and for us to bring accusation against one another.

We must ask the question, What is more important, being right or maintaining the unity of the Spirit?

I have found that in any many of the disagreements on the forums it is often the case that both sides have valid points, and many times both conflicting views are correct, and the problem is that we are seeing things from a different angle or perspective. I believe that many times that we are so eager to prove ourselves right and the other wrong that we are not even listening to what others are saying.

I believe that we can still disagree on various topics but still walk in love, and if there is a quarrel or disagreement, then we should not allow it to be a barrier to our fellowship and unity. We should be quick to forgive if we are offended.

I have had disagreements with brothers that I highly respect, and it does not change my opinion one bit of them as men of God. I have also had to repent for reacting in the flesh, in anger, and coming back on a post with a knee jerk reaction.

May we always speak the truth in love, maintaining the unity of the Spirit, having respect for all, not despising others because of their difference in opinion from ours. May we glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in all that we do, building up the Body of Christ in all of our communication with one another.

_________________
Mike

(((Quote:I have also had to repent for reacting in the flesh, in anger, and coming back on a post with a knee jerk reaction.

May we always speak the truth in love, maintaining the unity of the Spirit, having respect for all, not despising others because of their difference in opinion from ours. May we glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in all that we do, building up the Body of Christ in all of our communication with one another.)))

Yes Brother, thank you. Something that is not easily understood...when a child goes through abuse and rejection, he/she will feel the void of being an outcast and unloved...often times making some pretty serious mistakes in life. Once this child comes to know Jesus as Lord and Savior, often times there can be a rude awakening, the guilt from his/her past can eat away and cause a lot of damage, especially from others in the church who learn of this and shun him/her.

When this child, now an adult, begins to grow in Jesus, there's still so much they need to learn in God's Word, and they stumble in many things, yet they are learning and growing steadily. They want to change, they want to grow. Love is patient. Love is kind.

No one can put their trust in man. Man will always let one another down. But Jesus is so merciful. Jesus didn't come to save the righteous, He came to save the outcast. He said if your Brother sins 77 times 7 and asks forgiveness, forgive him. Is forgiveness shunning? Someone who has messed up badly in life understands mercy. They feel so unworthy.

A person who has been forgiven much will love much. No, its not an excuse whatsoever to keep sinning, but we are all in training. For those who have children, if your child keeps stumbling into sin, you don't kick him out the door. No, you discipline him because you love him. You show him mercy. Its through loving discipline that a child will learn obedience. If you shun a child after they repent, much damage is done, they get a warped sense of what love is.

I am finding that when we simply give our understandings and the reason for why we understand the way that we do.
That we are more able to convince others and less contentious in doing so.

My observation is that contention arises because we try to force other men to come under the veil of our own conscience.

1 Corinthians is a good study for the subject.

Unity of the Spirit is when everyone comes to know the truth as revealed by the Spirit.

Ephesians 4:11-13King James Version (KJV)

11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

While we are in the process of learning our views need to be perfected, our knowledge needs to grow, we may not yet have the fullness of Christ. As we communicate with teachers and ministers who edify the body, as our understanding of the truth grows we get closer to full unity. Shutting down this process while there are still unanswered honest questions and room to learn does not help unity.

So true Mike.

As James says: "Be quick to hear and slow to speak" and "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. "

I love James. Just so practical and speaks so clearly to our speech and behavior.

_________________
William