Pursue Peace

As the son of a pastor I've seen my share of church fights.  Church fights are ugly, silly, un-glorifying to Christ and usually avoidable.  I've seen a church fight, I kid you not, that began from something as trivial as someone whistling in church because they couldn't sing.

When we, the body of Christ, fight one another we make Jesus look less attractive to an unbelieving world.  We, the group of people supposedly dedicated to making much of Christ, belittle Christ when we fight one another.

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.  And be thankful."  Colossians 3:15

The Church universal and the local church needs to let the pursuit of peace be the general rule for our conduct with one another.

Before you pick a fight over something, from worship style to doctrine, ask yourself if it is worth it.  Being right is all fine and dandy, but is being  right worth disturbing the peace?  There are times when a closed mouth is more right than saying what you think is so right.  There are times when we need to let love cover someone sin rather than make sure justice is served.

Peace is a hard thing to create and maintain in a group of people, even or especially in the church.  Peace is also an extremely easy thing to disrupt and lose completely.  Let the pursuit of peace be your general rule for conduct in the church.

Here's one tip for letting peace rule in your interaction with people.  "And be thankful."  Those are the final three words of verse 15.  How about next time you feel the need to tell someone off or to correct them you had to think of why you're thankful for them first?  Imagine that before you could tell someone off you had to name a reason why you're thankful for them first.

The people in your local church are your family.  The people of the Church universal are members of the same body you are.  Let's start acting like that's true.  Let us pursue peace.

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.  And be thankful."  Obey this command today.