“I love the church, Pastor; it’s the people I can’t stomach!” Face it, the church is made up of people with different personalities, cultural and social backgrounds, genders, ages, occupations, etc. The most diverse body of people on this earth is the Body of Christ.
Apparently, in spite of all that life and being human may throw our way, Jesus intends for us to build healthy, godly relationships with one another based upon His love, forgiveness, mutual submission in the fear of God, and humility. Both the universal Church and the local congregation is called “family”, with the Head of the family of course being Jesus Christ. By faith in Christ Jesus we have entered into this family of fellowship with the Father and His Son and one another. The key to our horizontal relationships is the vitality of our vertical relationship with God. Without a significant, vibrant vertical relationship in the power of the Holy Spirit, our horizontal relationships will lack substance and true godliness.
Paul wrote about the way we are to treat the elderly and the young of both genders in his letter to Timothy. We are to see to it that our lives (speech, attitudes, actions) are neither a cause of nor fuel for division amongst believers. Rather than broadcast sins, we are to respond in a Biblical and appropriate manner, and in so doing cover the multitude of sins.
In other words, if you are looking for a church that has perfect leadership, perfect worship, perfect people assembled together, you’ll have to die first to find it! Every part of this local body is important, for we all need each other in order to complete the whole. Therefore, we must resist allowing fleshly desires to cause strife. Remember, when there is division in the Body of Christ and members are attacked by one another, who it is who bleeds.
May we all allow the Spirit of God to change us from glory to glory, and in doing so, maintain an atmosphere for Him to work in a most beautiful way.
