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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: Tim I think that is what I'm talking about. In the church today we have Protestants that are sure Catholics are cult and on their way to hell. In the Catholic church we have those that believe no Protestant can be saved. We have Baptist that believe that if your Pentecostal or not baptized by immersion your lost. We have Pentecostals that say unless you talk in tongues your not saved. We have those that believe they can rob banks shooting every one in sight and still go to heaven. We have those that believe in homosexuality and/or abortion and believe everyone that stands against it is hateful and closed minded and does not exhibit the love Jesus said is required to be His follower. There are many many more. All within the confines of Christianity all presenting completely different pictures of what they call truth and we expect the world to embrace us because we know the truth. Then we claim we are united in love. Are we? Or do we merely tolerate those unfortunate wretches that aren’t smart like us and can’t see their being deceived. We use words like we agree on the “essentials”. Do we? Or do we secretly agree that if you do ‘that’, whatever ‘that’ is, your really lost but it far easier to be hypocritical telling you I love you while I in fact pity you because your blinded to the truth I have found. How many Protestants would die before they gave to a Catholic charity no matter how genuine the need? Or how many Catholics would ever think of taking communion with their Protestant brothers in the Lord? How many Baptist would accept a brother into their church membership that was baptized by a Methodist? How many Pentecostals would accept the salvation of Presbyterian that just confessed to adultery? Yet we agree on the essentials but these are the essentials and we don’t agree. Then we say we have Christian unity because we love one another. I don’t think so and as long as denominations exists we prove it. EdB |