Quarrels
Names, and sects, and parties fall;
Thou, O Christ, art all in all. Charles Wesley
Read 1 Corinthians 1:10—17
I almost cannot help finding myself closer to some of my fellow believers than others. We just seem to hit it off. Partly it’s a personality thing. We have a similar humour, get the same jokes, are eager to take up the conversation we left off. Some I click with because we line up in how we express the faith. Some because we enthuse about — I hate to say it — ways we worship. (I will say it: the songs we like!) How to prevent party spirit? How to avoid offensive division? One thing I can do (there will be plenty of others): I can conscientiously set out to look for the presence of Christ in each of my fellow believers. Really seek to see him. Even ask, ‘What do you find is the most special thing your faith in Christ gives you?’ And come closer that way.
Dear Father, I thank you for my fellow believers. I thank you for what it is in their lives and their experience that has made them want to be known as Christians. I thank you that their lives have come within the influence of the Gospel. Please nourish our relationship. Let me value those I have barely connected with, and let me find treasures I have not expected.