In John 17, Jesus prays “The High Priestly Prayer”. It is a beautiful transparent look into the heart of our savior as He petitions God the Father on our behalf. The final portion of this prayer emphasizes the unity of the church, under the Lordship of Christ, so that the world may believe. Unity is an abnormality in our world. It stands in stark contrast to the division that fills the world around us. When the church operates in the kind of unity that Jesus prayed for, we shine as a light in the darkness. Scripture is saturated with this theme of unity within the Lordship of Christ.
We are all familiar with the command Jesus gives to his followers in Matthew 18:15-20. This is a prescriptive direction on how to respond to someone who sins against us. We are to go to them one-on-one first and lovingly address the sin. From there it is a step-by-step process of escalation to bring other believers into the situation in an attempt at reconciliation. When we confront, we are to do so in love and grace, as we read in Colossians 3:13, “bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
In Hebrews 12:14-15 we are admonished to “strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;”. We know from experience and from the Word that when we allow bitterness to take root, our hearts become hardened, and we begin to lack grace and mercy towards those who have sinned against us. This is a spiritually dangerous position to be in and it is why we see such warnings as in Matthew 5:23-24 which says, “so if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
We all must guard our hearts against this kind of bitterness and division. It is an ever-present foe waiting to destroy the witness of the church. We must never compromise on the truth of scripture. And we must address sin and offenses biblically. To quote Rupertus Meldenius, “In essentials, we show unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity”. May our desire for unity and response to sin and offense be a brilliant depiction of what Jesus prayed for us and stand as a great testimony of the work He has done and is doing within His Church.
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