Robert's Reflections
July 22, 2001

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The church at Tanner is an autonomous congregation in the united body of Christ. While no one has the right or the authority to come in and tell us what we can and cannot do in matters of liberty and expediency, there is New Testament precedent for different congregations working out their differences in doctrine and practice. (See Acts 15:22-29  in its context).

How are we to maintain unity as a body? What is the glue that binds us together? The answer to these questions applies to congregations and individuals as well. We often find ourselves at odds with some of our brethren. We have disagreements; and not only in matters of opinion.

2 John 1:9 makes it clear that it is the doctrine of Christ that will hold us together as a body. if we abide in it, we will have fellowship with both the Father and the Son. in Ephesians 4:13, Paul tells us to work at keeping the unit of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This doesn't come naturally! Look at all the passages that instruct us to be patient, forgiving, and considerate of one another.

Too many misinterpret I Corinthians 1:10 as being something of an on/off switch. It seems that they think we could automatically be of the same mind and speak the same thing, or have no divisions among ourselves by making a simple decision. This is something we have to work at . We must remember that people are at many levels of knowledge, understanding and maturity. Peter said tha Paul wrote some things that were hard to understand. Tht Hebrew writer spoke of milk and meat (Hebrews 5:12-14).

What's the point? We will never be perfect (in the perfect sense) in anything. But we have to keep working at it And we have to keep learning and growing as God's peo- ple. If we do we will find that we will be more united than we are divided, and we will speak the same things more than we speak differently. Work at unity.

Robert