Unity and Differences

Mark Lauterbach:

We all wres­tle with fear and anx­i­ety before the Lord. There is a sim­ple rea­son — our per­for­mance never mea­sures up. So, we look from Christ to our labors and sense uncertainty.

When we are anx­ious, we are tempted to find solu­tion. Solu­tions includes sys­tems of par­ent­ing or spir­i­tual dis­ci­plines that will take us up a notch. We fig­ure that if we can “get it right” in our appli­ca­tions and prac­tices, we will do well.

But then we meet other believ­ers in the church who apply the Word dif­fer­ently. They do not agree with our sys­tem. We per­ceive a threat to our secu­rity and we go on the attack, either to judge or despise, or to assert our rights.

Behind the prob­lems Paul addresses in Romans 14 is self-reliance, self-righteousness, anx­i­ety, and pride.

We obsess with our par­tic­u­lar way of apply­ing the Word.

Paul says, when we obsess on one point of appli­ca­tion, we dis­tort the Gospel. We cre­ate a pic­ture that is way out of pro­por­tion. Peo­ple begin the equate the Gospel with our prac­tice. They say that they under­stand becom­ing a Chris­tians means giv­ing up cig­a­rettes, or home­school­ing or vot­ing for Republicans.

Paul says when we obsess with the sec­ondary issues we lose the cen­ter, which is Christ.

The coun­sel of Paul is to feed on Christ, to focus on the pri­mary work of the Spirit — right­eous­ness, peace, and joy. The coun­sel of Paul is to cre­ate a con­text of rela­tion­ships where peo­ple may thrive. That means encour­age­ment, build­ing faith, and welcome.

Ques­tions for consideration:

1. Can you name a par­tic­u­lar area of appli­ca­tion that is more impor­tant to you than it should be? Why is it?

2. What would it look like to make Christ and the core of his work the main thing? How would that affect rela­tion­ships with those who dif­fer from you?