What are we talking about?
Our kids just getting along. I've told my adult children at times (and the ones still at home) to just get along. They don't have to agree with each other. They don't have to be each other's best friends. There's no reason they can't be kind to each other and keep some of their own opinions to themselves and spend the time they have together loving each other.
This goes for all of us.
Especially in the church. God wants His children to get along. Jesus says in John 15:12, "This is My commandment that you love one another, just as I have loved you."
He made a point to say that. It probably was an issue between His first disciples too.
In The Unexplainable Church, Erica Wiggenhorn writes, "Could it be that the concessions we make in our churches actually are the very things God uses to make us more like Christ? Could it be that when the music displeases my flesh, but I choose to worship in spite of it, part of my flesh becomes crucified and my spirit strengthened?"
Prior to this statement she writes, "If we're honest, church division occurs more often over squabbles regarding practice than it does over essential doctrine."
What if this coming year we all gave God the gift of church unity across the board? What if we loved our fellow Christians wholly? If we gave them the benefit of the doubt? If we didn't focus on our differences, but focused on what brings us together? The gospel is simple as Paul writes in Romans 10:9: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you shall be saved;"
What if we all loved each other rather than complain about each other and what if we allowed the Holy Spirit to do the convicting rather than we trying to do His job? Yes, there is a time for loving confrontation and if God is leading you to do this then do it. But more often than not, if we find ourselves criticizing a believer from afar it is just our flesh and not being done out of love.
What if the entire Christian church showed great love for each other? What if we in the West remembered our persecuted family in the rest of the world daily in our prayers? What if we in the west chose to not take part in the indulgent lifestyle so celebrated in our culture and instead used our resources to help those Christian brothers and sisters who need our help?
Think on it. How better can someone love you than really love your kids? When someone shows great kindness to my kids I am so grateful. Maybe Father God is the same way.
Jesus does say in Matthew 25:40, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me."
Merry Christmas! And as we look to 2020, may it be characterized by the great love we show each other.