Sometimes Christians don’t get along. This is more than just unfortunate. It is bad for our witness.
Our job as gospel-proclaimers is to urge people to reconcile.
We are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, ‘Be reconciled to God.’
The essence of the gospel is that is resolves a conflict between us and God.
Is it too much to say then that our own relationships should be a reflection of this, as much humanly possible?
Our relationships with each other reflects our relationship with God
Our ability (or inability) to resolve conflicts between each other gives a picture of the resolution of our conflict with God.
How can we have credibility when we say, “Be reconciled to God,” unless we are also reconciled to each other?
You wouldn’t trust an obese fitness coach.
You wouldn’t trust a dirt-poor financial advisor.
Why would you trust a person who says, “I’ve been reconciled with God,” but who can’t seem to reconcile with anyone?
You might say, “Well, it’s because of Christ that we can have a good relationship with God, not because of our own goodness.” True. And it’s that same Christ who calls you and enables you to resolve conflict with your brothers and sisters as well.
Unity is based on love, not on uniformity of thinking
We won’t all agree on everything, but if we can learn to disagree humbly and keep our attitudes in check, we’ll be well on our way to being good examples for the gospel.
In this divisive world, reconciliation is a message that the whole world needs to hear. And they need to see it exemplified in us, the ones who are talking about this “Grand Reconciliation” between mankind and God.
It starts with me, and with you.
This is an important example for the world
Tim Keller says, “When the church has a disagreement, that’s an opportunity. It’s a chance to show the world that we handle things differently. If everyone got along all the time, we wouldn’t have the chance to show the world that we handle conflict differently.” (This is a very rough paraphrase of Keller.)
John wrote that the world would know that we are disciples of Jesus because of our love for each other. That’s an amazing statement because it means that the way we treat each other is a form of evangelism. It’s one way that people see we are different.
People should be see Christians resolve conflict and be able to tell that they are Christians.
They should say, “Did you see how they resolved that? They must be Christians.”
Some people are doing this beautifully. I hope I can follow in their example.
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