Dear LifeSpring Family,
As the new school year starts, I am excited to start another season of Bible Study Fellowship – BSF. This year we will be studying the book of Matthew – The Unexpected King.
As all of us grapple with major decisions in our lives, like in the area of vaccination and leadership in our federal government, there will be disagreements. Allow me to share an article written by Karen McNary from BSF as a possible approach to disagreements.
“Unexpected Unity in Disagreement”
By Karen McNary, Director of Global Cultural Engagement and Community
Several years ago, I came across a saying:
“To live above with saints we love, oh that would be glory. To live below with saints we know, well that’s another story.”
Living with the saints can be hard. Selfishness. Pride. Division. Even believers struggle to find common ground with one another.
Conflict among God’s people is not isolated to one culture or even one historical era. Jesus himself was born into an extremely complex culture. Israel was under Roman rule, overburdened by taxes and restricted in religious liberties. Some Israelites, including the Zealots, expected a military-style Messiah to restore Israel’s autonomy by force. As politics divided God’s people, religious leaders varied in their interpretation of God’s Word.
But instead of just stepping into the fray, Christ invited people to rise above it. At the core of His ministry, He intentionally called 12 men with radically different backgrounds and temperaments. Instead of fitting into the world around Him, Jesus built a new community based on God’s Word and His ministry. And He called it the Kingdom of God.
In this community, the disciples were invited to learn together and participate with Him in sharing the good news of the gospel. They were united in their call to follow Jesus, but not always from the same perspective, as we’ll see in our upcoming Matthew study.
The same can be true for believers today. We answer the call to follow Jesus the same way – by grace through faith. Like the disciples, we bring our personalities, experiences, and worldviews into gospel community. We will likely find ourselves studying and serving in community with people who are very different from one another. And if we are honest, that community is not always comfortable.
Through Jesus’ relationship with the disciples, we learn some key practices in loving one another amid our differences.
In the cultural chaos of His day, Jesus spoke life-changing truths.
How can we respond when we disagree?
In Jesus’ time, as today, some teachings were just hard to understand. For instance, what did Jesus really mean when He said, “Follow me; and let the dead bury their own dead?” Some people read this literally, others figuratively.
Or how about Jesus’ lessons in Matthew 13? These simple stories with deep spiritual truths prompted the disciples to ask, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” Like the disciples, we are free to bring our questions before the Lord.
Jesus’ response to their question in Matthew 13:11 is eye-opening. “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.”
Jesus tells us that truth is revealed to each of us at different times and in different seasons. With this in mind, we can meet our brothers and sisters in Christ with grace as we trust the Lord to reveal truth in His time. There is room for differences of opinion when Christ is our foundation. We don’t have to carry the burden of argument or debate. Instead, we can pray, discuss and enjoy one another as God completes His unique work in His people.”