Monday, June 17, 2019
Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. Ephesians 4:1-4
Every time
I convince myself I’m done with it, that I’m not going to think about it, write
about it, or care about it ever-again, the Apostle Paul gets in my way. He’s like that, constantly reminding us about
love. And to use the word “love” there’s
no sense of smarmy, warm and fuzzy emotionalism in the mix. The Apostle’s “love” (of which Paul is not the
originator, but merely the messenger) is that singularly God-like selfless
love, agape’.[2]
In this is no room for emotion-driven,
touchy-feely I’m OK-You’re OK drivel. This kind of love is much more difficult,
requires using your brain, and is eminently greater at fixing human relationships. This love is what Paul was driving at when he
challenges believers to live a life worthy of that to which God calls us. Note the explanation:
Christians who wish to lead a life worthy of the
calling to which they have been called, are obliged, in imitation of their
Lord, to forbear one another in love, with all lowliness, meekness, and
patience (Eph
4:2). That is, they are to exercise calm patience under provocation, avoid
resentment and retaliation, be slow to judge and punish, and be ever ready to
forgive (Phil
4:5; Col
3:13; 2
Tim 2:24).[3]
Paul got
in my way with this, because he calls us to use every power, resource, and
possible effort to stay united. For someone who belongs to the tribe called United
Methodist, them’s fightin’ words!
Well, at least it would seem so.
I hate
fighting, or conflict of any kind. Perhaps
I owe it to my hardwired nature to be shy, and introverted. Perhaps it was my intoverted Mother’s training, or just the prevailing era’s mantra of not saying anything if you had
nothing nice to say. But, whether your
profile is that of wall-flowering recluse, or highly-active drama queen, mixing
it up in the latest bruhaha, you’re not even near baby understanding of God’s agape’
if you are just willing to sit and fume, or, worse, strike-back like a
counter-punching president. That is not
anywhere in the same universe with forbearing or making every effort
to keep united in the Spirit.
I fear for
my tribe that we are descending into the hell of plotting, intrigue, and manipulation
of institutional-infighting which is anything but forbearing one another,
remaining humble and gentle; this has no chance at all at ending what has been
a dividing war for decades. And it’s the
exclusive fault of neither one side nor the other…rather it
is pure evil that drives separation of people who are called to the worthy
(albeit quite difficult) task of being bound-together in selfless living, so
the world may truly see God.
Admittedly
there is “good” on both “sides” of the (not-nearly united)
Methodist holy war. Both want to be
connected to God and serve Him. Both
want to be a blessing, not a curse. Both
sides want to grow in love and usefulness in the Kingdom. But when that good intention becomes tainted
with human need to control, own and manipulate in order to accomplish keeping
their side of the elephant as holy, while disposing of the rest of the beast…well,
let’s just say we have allowed the good to become enemy of
the best!
For You Today
If you’re
stuck in some holy war, and sides are taken, and you’re being pulled in either
or both directions….STOP, think, be annoyed by the Apostle Paul’s call to get
your stuff together under the tent of God’s kind of love, and choose to
forbear, forgive, and bring together; that is the best
that will cooperate with the Spirit to drive the combatants to examine their
so-called good.
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture
quotations are from The New Living Translation©
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