DISAGREEMENT WITHOUT DIVISION

"Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other....

Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!

Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say,

'I will take revenge;

I will pay them back,'

says the Lord.

Instead,

'If your enemies are hungry, feed them.

If they are thirsty, give them something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap

burning coals of shame on their heads.
Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good." Romans 12:9,10,14-21 (NLT)

It was really hard to choose just one passage of Scripture for this subject--so many are on my mind, and in my heart right now. And, thankfully so, in such divisive and uncertain times!

As I watch the news and read it (I know, I'm consuming way more than I should be), I see so much division, even to the point of hatred. Literally, in our current political climate, marriages have ended, families have split along political lines (no longer speaking to one another whose views are different from our own), and long time friendships have ended, as well. How utterly sad! 

More sad, are the divisions that occur between Christians. Think of the implications--and there are many:

A divided house cannot stand. Mark 3:25

The world won't recognize us as children of God. John 13:34,35

No LOVE, no FAITH. Galatians 5:6

Without real, functioning (Agape) love, we will destroy each other by self-gratification. Galatians 5:13-26

Quarreling and bickering occur. 1 Corinthians 1:10-13

God hates it. Proverbs 6:16-19

Hate causes us to remain in darkness. 1 John 2:9

We trample underfoot the prayer of Jesus, for us. John 17:21

We will miss the blessings that come when unity is present. Psalm 133:1-3

The body becomes out of joint. 1 Corinthians 12:21-26

We cause breaches, rather than build. Nehemiah 4:6,15-23; (Causing breaches) 5:1-13.

I could go on and on, but that would be a book, not a blog! What's the point? It is entirely possible to be on opposite sides of the political spectrum, or even disagree on some doctrinal issues (read Romans 14, if you don't believe me) and still respect and love one another the way Christ Jesus prayed we would. We don't have to agree, to walk in love and be united in Him. UNITY is the requirement, not uniformity. The only time we are to have the same mind--is when we are imitating Christ (Philippians 2:1-8). Look closely at verses 2 and 5 of that chapter. That's the best time to be alike--if we aren't alike in anything else, be alike in this: in humility, in sacrificing self for the good of others, not being selfish or conceited, but tender and compassionate...just like Jesus.

"As much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." [Romans 12:18, KJV] Yup, that's what he said...and it was God-inspired, I promise. This is one of those not so easy things, like when Jesus broke forgiveness down to His disciples in Luke 17:1-4. Their immediate response in verse 5 was, "Lord, increase our faith!" The NIV and a few other versions, add that exclamation point to their response--I believe, it is well-deserved. Living peaceably with ALL men is another "Lord, increase our faith!" exercise. One of the things I've learned...(finally!), is that growth is facilitated most, by irritation (think diamonds, or seeds, etc.). It's the "prickly" people in our lives that cause us to grow up. They teach us to pray and rely on God, rather than whine and complain. Ease and comfort don't make the "man" (or woman). Recently, in Bible Study, my pastor said something so profoundly wise, "Trials can become your best friend." Of course, as long as you go against the course, and refuse to learn that won't be the case. However, as soon as you surrender your will and accept the "cup" that is prepared for EVERY one of us, the tools needed to thrive in the eye of the storm, become apparent.

On Romans 12:18, the Expositor's Bible says this: "If possible, as regards your side (the "your" is as emphatic as possible in position and in meaning), living at peace with all men; yes, even in pagan and hostile Rome. A peculiarly Christian principle speaks here. The men who had "given over their bodies a living sacrifice" might think, imaginably, that their duty was to court the world’s enmity, to tilt as it were against its spears, as if the one supreme call was to collide, to fall, and to be glorified. But this would be fanaticism; and the Gospel is never fanatical, for it is the law of love. The surrendered Christian is not, as such, an aspirant for even a martyr’s fame, but the servant of God and man. If martyrdom crosses his path, it is met as duty; but he does not court it as eclat. And what is true of martyrdom is of course true of every lower and milder form of the conflict of the Church, and of the Christian, in the world.
Nothing more nobly evidences the divine origin of the Gospel than this essential precept; "as far as it lies with you, live peaceably with all men." Such wise and kind forbearance and neighbourliness would never have been bound up with the belief of supernatural powers and hopes, if those powers and hopes had been the mere issue of human exaltation, of natural enthusiasm. The supernatural of the Gospel leads to nothing but rectitude and considerateness, in short to nothing but love, between man and man. And why? Because it is indeed divine; it is the message and gift of the living Son of God, in all the truth and majesty of His rightfulness. All too early in the history of the Church "the crown of martyrdom" became an object of enthusiastic ambition. But that was not because of the teaching of the Crucified, nor of His suffering Apostles.
Not avenging yourselves, beloved; no, give place to the wrath; let the angry opponent, the dread persecutor, have his way, so far as your resistance or retaliation is concerned. "Beloved, let us love"; {1 John 4:7} with that strong and conquering love which wins by suffering. And do not fear lest eternal justice should go by default; there is One who will take care of that matter; you may leave it with Him. For it stands written, {Deuteronomy 32:35} "To Me belongs vengeance; I will recompense, saith the Lord." "But if" (and again he quotes the older Scriptures, finding in the Proverbs 25:21-22 -the same oracular authority as in the Pentateuch), "but if thy enemy is hungry, give him food; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for so doing thou wilt heap coals of fire on his head"; taking the best way to the only "vengeance" which a saint can wish, namely, your "enemy’s" conviction of his wrong, the rising of a burning shame in his soul, and the melting of his spirit in the fire of love. Be not thou conquered by the evil, but conquer, in the good, the evil.
"In the good"; as if surrounded by it, moving invulnerable, in its magic circle, through "the contradiction of sinners," "the provoking of all men." The thought is just that of Psalm 31:18-19 : "How great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy presence from the pride of man; Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues." "The good" of this sentence of St. Paul’s is no vague and abstract thing; it is "the gift of God"; {Romans 6:23} it is the life eternal found and possessed in union with Christ, our Righteousness, our Sanctification, our Redemption. Practically, it is "not It but He." The Roman convert who should find it more than possible to meet his enemy with love, to do him positive good in his need, with a conquering simplicity of intention, was to do so not so much by an internal conflict between his "better self" and his worse, as by the living power of Christ received in his whole being; by "abiding in Him."
 

I started this post with a passage from Romans 12. Romans 12:9 (in the KJV) begins with, "Let love be without dissimulation." The Greek word for dissimulation will give a great clue as to its meaning: "anupokritos" [an=without; pokritos...sounds like our English word for hypocrisy]. Of course, we don't want to be hypocritical in any way, so what is Paul saying to us? As I was studying the subject (because I needed some godly light in this darkness!), I read some commentaries on Romans 12. MacLaren's Exposition on verse 9 seemed to go further in explanation and depth than the others: "Let love be honest.
"Love stands at the head, and is the fontal source of all separate individualised duties. Here Paul is not so much prescribing love as describing the kind of love which he recognises as genuine, and the main point on which he insists is sincerity. The ‘dissimulation’ of the Authorised Version only covers half the ground. It means, hiding what one is; but there is simulation, or pretending to be what one is not. There are words of love which are like the iridescent scum on the surface veiling the black depths of a pool of hatred. A Psalmist complains of having to meet men whose words were ‘smoother than butter’ and whose true feelings were as ‘drawn swords’; but, short of such consciously lying love, we must all recognise as a real danger besetting us all, and especially those of us who are naturally inclined to kindly relations with our fellows, the tendency to use language just a little in excess of our feelings. The glove is slightly stretched, and the hand in it is not quite large enough to fill it....Any man who seeks to make his words a true picture of his emotions must be aware that few harder precepts have ever been given than this brief one of the Apostle’s, ‘Let love be without hypocrisy.’" In other words, it's a slippery slope. It's easy to appear to love and care, without a heart that is actually engaged in that process. Motives genuinely matter, to God. We don't want to be vain in our worship, or vain in our love towards God or others.

Along with that, we have to reject this tendency in ourselves, to overlook, rationalize or justify our lack in the area of sacrificial love (and, at the moment, I'm not talking about as it relates to things, but to the real giving of self, in relationship.) So many times, I've heard CHRISTIANS say, "that's just the way I am...". But, you are a new creation, in Christ Jesus, so that must change to "that's the way I was, and by the grace of God, I am no longer. All of our doing can quickly become "sounding brass and tinkling cymbals" if our hearts are not motivated by pure love.

Last point I want to make is this: nothing works right without love and when division is presence. We can't fight (spiritual warfare) divided. The armor that Paul referenced in Ephesians 6, requires unity for optimal effectiveness. Paul's point of reference would have been the Roman soldiers of that day--and among their armor was a shield that served several purposes. First, it was covered in animal skins, and before battle they would soak the shield in water, so that when the "fiery darts" hit them, they would immediately be quenched. Secondly, they were large enough that if the battle became too fierce, they could crouch behind them for protection. And, finally, they had beveled edges that when linked with the shields of all of the other soldiers they could form one long impenetrable wall against the enemy, leaving no room for him to attack. By faith, unified, we are unstoppable, and the enemy has to flee. 

United, we win. Divided, we can't win.

The presence of division is proof that we, Western Christians have not the love of Christ--corporately; at least, not the way we think we do. And, we have been divided for a long time. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that 11 a.m. on a Sunday morning is “the most segregated hour in this nation,” going on to call rampant racial segregation in American churches “tragic.”

#Philippians2verses1thru10 #Matthew22verses37thru40 #Nehemiah4vs6