Jesus prayed for unity among Christians. He desires that we be one, perfected in unity, that the world may know that God sent Jesus, and that we abide in his love
Paul wrote to the Romans about people who have different convictions on issues such as the observance of holy days, the eating of meat sacrificed to idols, and the drinking of wine
Suppose we are convinced that a certain thing is not evil in itself, and is even a good thing in its proper place. Suppose we observe that if we participate in that thing, we may cause harm and stumbling to someone else. Naturally we will abstain from participating that thing, even though we believe it to be good in itself. We will take the attitude that "it is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything by which your brother stumbles"
When there is disunity in the church, we often find people opposing what they regard as other people's wrongs, or defending what they regard as their own personal rights. This kind of disunity is easily solved by everybody first showing respect for the personal convictions of others, even though they disagree with them, and then asking themselves one important question. If I gave up the right which I believe I have, and abstained from doing the thing that I believe to be good and clean in itself, would my own righteousness and service to the Lord be adversely affected? If not, then should I not abstain from what I believe to be good, if that abstention will help to maintain peace and
This principle of unity may be
Many people suffer from the perception that if they see other people doing wrong, they are somehow responsible for it, and are obliged to get involved. While this may be true in some cases, it is not generally true. Disunity is often created by people getting themselves involved in what really is none of their business or responsibility. Paul tells us that we should keep out of matters which are between a slave and his servant, matters which are theirs to deal with, and which are none of our business. "Who are you to to judge the servant of another? To his own Master he stands or falls, and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand"
Our personal reponsibility for the actions of other Christians is limited. On one hand, we need to be responsible within those limits. On the other hand, we should not ursurp responsibility outside those limits. Some things the Lord requires us to deal with, and other things he requires us to
One important responsibility we have with regard to what others do, is to make sure that any action of ours does not cause others to stumble. "He who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men"
The principle of unity, summarised at the end of our first point, is also a summary of our personal responsibility. For emphasis, let's
It should not be hard to see how these principles, if we have understood them, can be applied to the
Sometimes we find disunity in the church because people differ about whether or not a Christian may drink alchoholic liquor. The issue of "social drinking" or "drinking in moderation" may flare up as a controversy in the church and threaten
The disunity, however, is not because people have different convictions on this matter, but because one person wants to force and bind his conviction on the other, and does not respect the other
Obviously we are not going to foster unity by taking sides in this controversy. We will foster unity by observing the principle of unity and personal responsibility that we have
Once more, for emphasis, let's repeat the principle, but this time tune it specifically to the