I find it sad that two people can be friends for many years and do many nice gestures for one another, then all of a sudden...some small incident occurs which drives a wedge and leaves a permanent scar in a relationship. It's not only sad that much of the world experiences this with each other, but it is worse to think that this type of scenario happens in our own Churches. A person can do 999x things right for another, but when one small incident occurs, we allow minor incidents to rob a life long relationship often over a menial and petty incident. This is like comparing to the Isrealites when they remained in bondage in Egypt for 430 years, saw awesome miracles of God, yet they had the audacity to start to grumble, murmur and complain within 3 days!! We may think "how ludicrous" could they have been, but it is how we are at times when we see ourselves festering over one incident and have overlooked multiple good that others have done for us. God reminds me time and time again, that we need to stop festering on being offended over petty things that drives a wedge in our relationship when He tells us that we should be pursuing Peace. That is why He tells us in Phil 4:8 to think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report any virtue and praises, rather then festering on things that will only bring division and strife. Most times, I have experienced that infractions between people are due to mis-understanding which were never intentional. The reason why this often takes place between Christians is because we have allowed the enemy to control us which often is the result of allowing our fickle feelings to dominate our thinking, rather than keeping guard our hearts by doing what is right before God. God tells us that it is our responsibility to guard our heart, because this is what flows the issues of life (Prov 4:23). Therefore, we cannot afford to allow our fickle feelings and emotions that often get in the way from pursing love, peace and unity like our Lord desires for His Church.
If there is anything the devil likes to do is to bring division between the Saints because he knows that a kingdom that is divided will never be able to stand (Mark 3:24). We are representatives of God and His Kingdom here on earth. This is where Saints of God need to take responsibility and repent before the Lord who have allowed division to take place and be determined to take a stand to promote love, peace and unity (Psalm 34:14; 2 Tim 2:22; Heb 12:14; 1 Pet 3:11). I say the word pursue and "actively" often because Christianity is anything but a passive religion. Christianity requires work and for us to be active and purposeful in our duty to maintain unity within the body, seek and pursue His Peace and Righteousness. God tells us that we need to master sin (Gen 4:7). In the case of strife and division, we need to put a stop by comitting this "omission of sin" which is failing to do what we know we ought to be doing when need to promote peace and unity. We need to seriously deal with this sin that causes strife and division because sin is what cost our dear Saviour not only His life, but His life to such a horrific extent of suffering, the worst brutal suffering any man could have endured. We need to know that our real enemy is satan and his emissaries; not flesh and blood. We play into the trap of satan when we come against each other rather than joining our hands and heart with each other and uniting to pray one for another which is what does damage to our real enemy. We need to stop allowing the devil to deceive Gods people and realize that he often uses people to come against us or use situations to bring misunderstanding that will often lead to confrontations, strife and division. If we are to be followers of Christ, then we need to STOP allowing ourselves to be offended and always be prayerful. Afterall, this is what people need and we will be more able to fulfill their needs when we pray for them rather than allowing ourselves to be dominated by the deceiver himself. God tells us to be imitators of Christ (Eph 5:1). When a person hurts one another, it is because they are hurting themselves and they need prayer. With Gods help, we need to pursue peace (which means to be active and do it on purpose), pray one for another and strive (be active) to fulfill the Law of Love, just like Christ does for us. Therefore, I find keeping several of the following points in mind truly help me:
- When we remember Christs rich Mercy, Grace, indescribable suffering and His love for ourselves in a deep personal way, which in turn will allow us to be merciful and gracious to others in their time of need, rather than being offended and controlled by our fickle feelings and emotions;
- We need to understand that our enemy is satan and his angels (and not one another), who often are able to use one another to come against each other, of which many times people don't realize they have offended one another. This will allow us to see other people as a victim of the enemy and we will be able to pray for them instead of falling into the tricks of the enemy by coming against one another;
- We need to see how important it is for God; for us to strive to increase in love, strive to maintain peace and unity by maintaining a healthy spiritual body of Believers.
- Finally, we need to know that how we treat one another is how we treat the Lord. When we shun ourselves from one another and harbour bitterness or resentment towards one another, we are showing contempt towards the Lord. He tells us in (Matt 25:40) that when He was sick, naked and in prison, He tells His Disciples that when they did it unto others, they did it unto the Lord. How we love the least of the Brethren is the measure we love the Lord.
We need to tell the devil who is Boss (Jesus) in our lives by doing all we can to maintain peace and unity with one another, just like Christ would want us to do. When we don't agree with other Christians on certain doctrines, this should never dictate how we will or will not get along. We need to be likeminded by joining our hearts together to exalt our Lord and Saviour Jesus by promoting love (1 Cor 13:4-8). We cannot be a spiritually healthy Church when Christ is the Head when we allow division to take place between us. When we see how Jesus loves us and we see our relationship with Jesus goes hand in hand with each of our Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, we will want to do everything to maintain sweet fellowship and unity one with one another. When we read Psalm 133, we see how precious having peace with one another is pleasant to the Lord, it should be equally our deepest desire.
Psalm 133:1-3 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments. It is as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion; for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.
Matt 5:9 - Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
May we allow the Peace, unity and love of God to rule over our lives and one for another.
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