August 23

In todays reading through biblegateway.com, we find an interesting start to the sixth chapter of Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth. He writes, "When one of you has a dispute with another believer..." His instruction is not that they should never have disputes. His counsel is that there will be disputes, in fact, disputes that will be serious enough to necessitate formal proceedings.

How do we reconcile that with Jesus' declaration in John 13 that the world will know we are His disciples by our love for one another and again in John 17, His prayer, that we would be one as He and the Father are one? I would submit to you that oneness and unity are not contradictory to conflict. In fact, Christianity expects us to pursue relationships to a degree of vulnerability that if we have never been disappointed, if we have never been hurt, if we have never been emotionally violated, then we have not loved deep enough! Jesus does not expect us to be naive; He tells us in Matthew 10:16 that we are to be as wise as serpents yet innocent as doves. He is not demanding that we make ourselves emotionally and materially vulnerable to others impulsively, without considering a person's character or a person's reputation. We are simply being taught a principle of relationship, the bond of friendship, brotherhood, sisterhood, is not held until we cross the threshold of vulnerability. In addition, vulnerability has degrees. The wisdom of Proverbs speaks volumes to this idea of being measured in our vulnerability to others; however, we cannot be measured if we have not even begun to trust!

I Corinthians 6 is a treasure to the church. Our witness is not in an absence of conflict but rather the presence of reconciliation. When the Church begins to, among ourselves, reconcile relationships that the world itself deems irreconcilable, there will not be enough chairs and pews in an entire city to contain those who will come. We all know that we are broken, we are looking for a place that heals and unfortunately, for most people, the Church has been just another place of perpetual relational fracturing.

We are talking about Relationships this weekend at the Newport News campus of City Life, specifically Matthew 18...if you cannot be with us, checkout the podcast! We are working diligently to be a church where the ministry of reconciliation is held in high esteem!

Pastor Fred