Before we were even a country, two families had a dispute about the boundary line between their lands, the Penns and the Calverts. Eventually it led to actual violence at the borders, including an eight year conflict called Cresap’s War. Finally the families hired Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, English astronomers and surveyors, to settle the matter, resulting in what is now the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, plus what would become West Virginia and Delaware. Neither family got all of what they claimed; they both gave up ground. We now know the line those men created as the Mason-Dixon line, a line which separated the North and the South during the Civil War. (Smithsonian Magazine, May 25, 2017)
It seems that people are always fussing about something. Even in the early church, in a time when their unity was crucial, someone always found something to pick a fight about. All of those people who had come for the Jewish holidays but wound up spending far more time than expected when they heard the gospel and believed, being baptized into that first group of Christians in Jerusalem, found themselves short of funds. They had probably saved all year for the trip, and had left behind homes, businesses, and other assets, expecting to return home as soon as possible. Staying in Jerusalem meant no work for many, and no way to feed their families. Many sold lands and made huge donations to feed those families, but someone evidently saw and made a difference between the Jews who lived in Palestine and those who lived elsewhere in the world: Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution Acts6:1. Hellenists, mind you, were still Jews—they were just Jews from somewhere else. “Somewhere else” has long been a source of trouble for many. Remember in the Law God had to make sure He told His people to be kind to the “sojourners,” people living in the Promised Land temporarily. Some of His people didn’t like that.
Then, of course, once Gentiles were made part of the new kingdom people had issues with that. “Well, I guess it’s okay, but they need to be good Jews first.” At least that is the gist of the feelings—read Acts 15 and Galatians, especially. Then in 1 Corinthians we find people creating groups over who baptized them and even who had which spiritual gift—”as if you had anything to do with which gift you received” Paul tells them, more or less, in 1 Cor 4:7.
The last great prayer Jesus left us with spends much of its time on this very topic, unity: that they may be one even as we are one John 17:11. And why is it so important? That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent meJohn17:21. A lack of unity will impede the great mission that the Lord gave His kingdom—saving the world. If we are busy fussing and fighting among ourselves, why should anyone else want to join us? And what a monumental waste of the precious time we have been given to complete the job. It is nothing short of selfishness and arrogance to put our differences and preferences and opinions ahead of the commands of the Lord to go and teach, and make disciples.
If you are seeing differences between you and a brother or sister in the Lord, fix it now. You do not want to have to explain your refusal to do so to a Lord who gave up everything for you.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise Gal3: 28,29
Dene Ward
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