Romans Blog 2

My favorite theme in Romans is the theme of unity. Don’t argue over things but instead be unified. Check out this verse: “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:5-6 NRSV).


I have a friend who wrote a song with the theme of unity. I love the song so much because it should be every Christian’s prayer. When I was growing up, my church had two pastors. Both of them were great at sharing the gospel on their Sunday. Something happened though. As a result, the founding pastor was told to leave. Along with the pastor, many of the members of the church left. That caused pain throughout the body. I doubt that anybody would dispute that. It is like cutting a person in half.

The pastor left causing pain in himself and his family. The members who were all friends one day were arguing. Some left causing more pain. Yet if they had stayed they would have remained in pain. The people who stayed had differing opinions and argued more. That caused more people to leave. Within a short period of time, our standing-room-only two service church became a one service church with many open seats. Even today there is still arguing over whether or not the pastor should have been told to leave.

All that time wasted. Think about that. Every moment we spend arguing is another moment that we are not spreading the love of Christ. Maybe it is because of my time watching a church break that I do not like to argue about issues that do not directly relate to the basic creed of Christianity.

What is more important, you tell me…helping the woman down the street understand that there is hope and showing her the love of Christ, or arguing about what color carpet should be placed in the foyer of a building with a steeple on it? I am about to go cliché on you, so be forewarned: What would Jesus do? Would he sit around the table discussing why he prefers crimson and fluffy carpeting over the flat and dull dark green?

Another problem I have encountered is what I am allowed to do as a Christian. We tend to like to argue about what we have the freedom to do and what we do not have the freedom to do. Obviously there are some things that the Bible clearly states that we are not to do. The Ten Commandments are a few of those things. However, there are gray areas. Christians like to fight over the gray areas, don’t we? I learned in a study this past summer that if God has not convicted you in a specific area (that is not one of the areas that he has told all of us not to do) then we are able to do that. For example, if a person feels a conviction not to watch a movie that is rated R that is great. That person then should not watch rated R movies. However, that person cannot force his/her convictions onto all the other Christians. In the same way, Christians who do not have that conviction should no recommend movies that are rated R to that person. I really enjoyed Romans 14 for this reason.

If Christians could learn how to be unified that would be the start of something absolutely amazing. Now, I am not saying that we must agree on everything. I may have a strong opinion that blue is the greatest color in the world and you by no means need to agree with me. Maybe you like pink. Or maybe you think that the six days of creation were thousands of years. I would completely disagree with you. However, I would rather help orphans and widows who need help rather than debate that.

I do not mind discussions. You can tell me why you think the flood was local but do not expect me to argue with you. Do not expect me to agree with you either. This is also a personal thing. I really hate arguments, I do not like watching debates where there needs to be a winner. I hate that mentality that one person is obviously smarter than the other person. Do you know why? Because all of the members have that same thought throughout the debate and after it is over, nobody has changed their minds and yet all think they have won.

There are exceptions to this. If you told me that you were a Christian but said that you did not believe that Jesus died and rose again, then you would hear from me. That is part of what a Christian is supposed to believe. If you told me that Jesus was only human, you would hear from me. However, you would not hear me demanding that you take my side. However, there would be a lot of passion in what I had to say.

Unity, that is the key to being the Body of Christ. It is something that I do not see very often in the American Church (as a whole). It is something that I pray for. Let’s learn to get along now; we are all going to spend an eternity together. If we learn how to be unified now, then God won’t have to teach us that before we go to Heaven because that will become something He has already taught us.