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NASB | Ephesians 4:3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the bond of peace [each individual working together to make the whole successful]. |
Subject: denominations. |
Bible Note: Since I’ve been reading all the talk concerning denominational beliefs, I thought I could share my thoughts and pray they help to somewhat place things into perspective. Now I haven’t read all of the posts but it seems to me the ones I did read kind of repeat themselves, so I believe I have received the gist of it. The following is two-fold and looks into Ephesians 4 and then Ephesians 2. All scripture that I have quoted is taken from the NIV. We are all Christians, that is, we have established our faith in Christ. We believe that God incarnated Himself in human form, God the Son, Jesus Christ. He was born into this world by a virgin. He died on the cross for our sins and transgressions, was resurrected and ascended to Heaven and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father. He sent His Holy Spirit to baptize and indwell us, who believe, and mark us as His until His return, when we believers, will be seated with Christ for eternity and in the presence of God. We should be unified in those beliefs. In those beliefs we are the body of Christ (the church) to which He is the head. Read Ephesians 4. It displays how we (the church) should be unified in Christ and then gives us practical applications on how to achieve that. Paul explains in Ephesians 4 that we are to make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. Then shows the seven ways in which Christians are unified. How are we to make that “every effort” to keep the peace without surrendering basic beliefs? We all have noticed and especially as of late, how one denomination jokes or ridicules another because of differences, not so much fundamental beliefs, but more so on organizational beliefs. Many people jump on the Catholics for their belief that priests should not marry and many have problems confessing sins to another “man”. Many jump on the Pentecostal church for their speaking in tongues. I’ve done it. The Baptists have their organizational doctrine as well as the Methodists and they differ in practice, all of them. Each church organization has their own guidelines that members are to adhere to. Many have a no tolerance approach in dealing with those who don’t worship within those guidelines. I think this passage speaks directly to those people. Christians have a fundamental belief that I kind of outlined when sending the questions for this week. We need to keep the peace with others who promote the same fundamental beliefs. I think we do that with a loving disposition towards the body of Christ. Our Lord has established a common ground for to anchor to. Paul whenever he preached the Gospel to a new group, he established a common ground and worked within that realm. We need to see that example and follow it. When talking to another who may be from a different background or upbringing, we need to focus on similarities and not differences. So long as the fundamental beliefs are the same, we should be focusing on those in Christ. Promoting unity within the church, the whole church, just not our denominational church. Continued in next post. |