“It would be a great place to live if it wasn’t for the people.” Many places have been given that title—great place but terrible people. But the truth of the matter is living with people makes life difficult. The church is no different since one of the top five reasons people leave the ministry is because of interpersonal conflict. So how do we think about working through this issue?
The foundation of working through any issue would be to seek to love them as Christ loves them. 1 Corinthians 13 is a great help in thinking about the root of the problem. Is it envy, impatience, rudeness, pride, anger, or selfishness? But many times it is a matter of conscience and religious conviction. Each party feels justified and accurate resulting in a great impasse (v. 5). So how do we proceed from here?
Paul solves this situation through submission to God and to one another. If we in our liberty “eat meat sacrificed to idols,” or our cultural disputable matters (v. 1) such as going to the movies, dancing or style of worship, and knowingly distress another believer we not loving them (v. 15). We are to never destroy the faith of our brothers and sisters in Christ because of our liberty (v. 15), but on the other hand we also should not allow what we consider good to be spoken of as evil (v. 16). Walking this delicate balance takes great care and we must make every effort to live such a way because this leads to peace and mutual edification (v. 19).
We are to avoid both legalism and licentiousness for this is mark of maturity and is pleasing to God. Living with others is not easy but loving each other in spite of our differences and maybe even because of them sets us apart from the world.
Posted by Aaron Miner
Saturday, December 13, 2008
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