In Christ: Know It, Live It - 42 (The Pursuit of Peace)

God has created the church with an inherent, organic unity through the Holy Spirit. We ARE one...by nature. GOD creates this unity and we are to MAINTAIN it. But HOW?

The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4:3 that we are to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the church by PEACE. We are to be "...eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." PEACE is HARMONY in relationships. To be at peace with one another means we are getting along, being careful not to allow anything to come between us and dealing with anything that does quickly and thoroughly.

This is no small thing! Ideally the church is to filled with folks from many different backgrounds with different interests, different financial status', different cultural upbringings, etc. As we fellowship together with our still sin-influenced hearts, the desire to "have it my way" or the ease which we misunderstand or misjudge one another causes many mild to serious "rubs." RUBS can produce rawness in relationships if they are not covered by love or revealed and reconciled in love. But as we have seen, our calling to live as the one body of Christ is a call to deal with these "rubs" so that harmony can be restored.

Paul calls this peace a BOND. BOND speaks of what "binds together." We might say it is the SUPER GLUE of the body of Christ. Just as the parts of our bodies MUST remain intimately united and connected and interdependent for us to live and operate effectively, so we must pursue the glue of harmony with one another in order that the body of Christ, OUR CHURCHES, will remain united and robust with the Spirit's life.

The GLUE OF PEACE is something Paul says we must be EAGER to maintain. EAGER means to be diligent, earnest, to make every effort for. I remember a professor who paraphrased this word as "bust the gut." We must bust our guts to stay at peace with one another. This convicts and sobers me. When I think of how cavalier I have been about problems in my relationships and how easy it has been in the church to walk away from a brother's friendship when the RUB became too coarse, I shudder. I have...we have...made it too easy to bailout when interpersonal problems raise their ugly heads.

Perhaps there is someone you need...I need...to go back to and by faith bust the gut to purse the glue of peace.