Pastor's Pen

Beloved, sometimes we tend to view the early church through stain-glass windows as though they had no problems. However, remember this truth, whenever people are involved, there will be problems. God uses people but the people that God uses are imperfect and therefore sometimes the greatest conflicts are in the body of Christ.

The truth is that people disagree. If you ever find two people that agree on everything, then one of them is not thinking. In fact it is not just immature people who disagree but godly people disagree. Abraham and Lot’s servants disagreed; Jacob and Laban argued; and the early disciples often quarreled with one another.

Quite honestly some issues are worth fighting for while others are just a waste of time. If it is a doctrinal issue, then we will rumble. Jude 1:3 says, “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” I will fight for the faith. Otherwise, we should follow what Rupertus Meldenius said, “In non-essentials, liberty; in essentials, unity; in all things, charity.”

Blessings,
Pastor Joe