For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up. Romans 14:17-19 (NLT) Some matters of right and wrong do not matter in the long run. Do such matters threaten church fellowship? Dietary laws are relatively trivial, and their fulfillment is not essential to God’s reign. Of far more importance is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23: “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Do you create church harmony? Proverbs 12:20: Deceit fills hearts that are plotting evil; joy fills hearts that are planning peace! Believers’ hearts cannot be filled plots filled with deception and disunity. They need to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit which produces the gifts which lead to the church working in harmony. Dissention destroys the flow of the Spirit and the ability of the church to work in unity. The fruit of the Spirit is the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit in us. The Spirit produces the character traits that are found in the nature of Christ. They are by-products of Christ’s control – we are unable to obtain them by trying to get them without His help. If we want harmony and unity in the church we must act in a Christ like manner. We must not be self-seeking, but desiring to get along with all in the body of Christ. We may have to overlook some minor things in the lives of other believers to accomplish this and vice-versa. We need to be less judgmental and more accepting of people. We cannot insist on having our own way all they time. At the same time, we must stand firm on the Word of God and not compromising it by not calling sin sin. We may not all agree on the color of the carpet or room setting, but it should not cause us to split the church.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 00:22:28 +0000
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