Church Unity

One of my least favorite things in the world is disunity. I am a guy who enjoys peace and seeing people come together, in every situation. Seeing people being able to put their differences aside and come together despite different views, experiences, and opinions is something that warms my heart. Today, I was scrolling through social media and saw a post and the caption said, “Republicans, comment something you legitimately respect about Democrats. Now, Democrats, comment something you legitimately respect about Republicans.” I almost immediately fled to the comment section totally expecting to see a whole bunch of sarcastic comments and people taking jabs at the opposing side of their political views; however, I instead saw the comments being full of loving, respectful comments addressing what they legitimately respected about the differing opinions of the others. This comment section gave me a small amount of hope, reminding me that people are not their opinions. Do opinions make an affect on the person? Of course they do, but it’s still a human being, created by God hiding behind their opinions.

I think as much as disunity frustrates me, nothing frustrates me more than disunity in the Church. As someone who grew up in a more conservative church, seeing more charismatic churches enticed me, if I’m being honest. Simply put, charismatic churches were just — more fun. The environment got me more fired up to worship and pay attention to the speaker during their sermons. However, it bothered me how so many individuals from my church, on the internet, as well as other conservative churches around me had such a low respect for the charismatic christian community and vice-versa. It honestly discouraged me. Coming from a family where one of my parents grew up in a charismatic church, and the other parent in a more conservative church, I saw both sides of the arguments and disagreements. I am very blessed to have had both of my parents teach me truth as a young man while also not forcing any specific christian denomination or opinion on me. They simply just wanted me to fall in love with God as well as seek out the truth found in His Word. However, I feel as though the Christian culture unnecessarily forces an invisible divide amongst the members of the church. In my early high school years, I used to spend many hours of my weeks researching, praying, and even crying over this ‘’divide”. I used to get so fed up with people saying hateful things back and forth to each other. A few years ago, I was scrolling through Facebook and saw an advertisement for the Passion translation (TPT) Bible. My curiosity took me to the comments, and there were comments such as, “This is full of false doctrine! Do not get it!”, “If you read the Passion translation, you are not a true Christian and are on the way to hell! Repent!”, and even a comment that said, “I want to order all of the Passion Bibles in stock, so that I can burn them. It is not God’s Word!”. This was about three years ago, and I still can picture those comments in my head. I mean, why is it that our own brethren are arguing over things such as a Bible translation, and even throwing threats of hell and the burning of the Holy Bible. When I read these comments, I was so distraught. I did not understand the reason behind these unnecessary comments about a personal opinion. I also, throughout the past few years, have had people tell me I shouldn’t listen to Hillsong Worship, Bethel Music, or other similar groups, because their Churches were led by “false preachers”. This bothered me, because when I am listening to worship music, my mind is focusing its attention towards my Saviour and not once do I ever think about the Churches pastor. Worship can be done in anything that isn’t sin, so how can me listening to a song full of truth mislead me in my own, personal worship? I am responsible for worshiping in spirit and truth. My relationship with Christ is between Him and me. I need my fellow brethren to call me out, hold me to my word, and accountability, as well as help shepherd me through difficult seasons of life; but I do not need people who aren’t even involved in my life in the first place to tell me that my worship isn’t adequate because the songwriter attends a mega church. Recently, I have been doing a Bible study in 1 Corinthians, and the first topic Paul dives into is the disunity of the Church. He then, in chapter two, states, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified”, then later says, “So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (ESV). Verse two is one of my favorite Bible verses, because it is a reminder to me, that Salvation is the hill to die on. It’s not important or vital for me to die on a hill, arguing whether or not it is okay to worship with dimmed lights or not. If I have the opportunity to serve the Lord with someone whose beliefs differ from mine, I am going to serve the Lord, because I have decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If you believe in the gospel, then let’s serve together! Our personal opinions on worship should not affect our heart or our will to serve the Lord. My prayer is that I and my fellow followers of Christ would focus not on the differences in the Church, but focus instead on the underlying truth that Jesus Christ has transformed our lives by dying in our place, for our sins, then defeating death by resurrecting three days later so that we might spend eternity with Him in heaven. Throughout my countless hours spent researching and praying over this topic, I’ve only learned more about the heart of God. My hope and prayer is that the Holy Spirit would have used my thoughts and words to have at the very least, encouraged you.

-Jack Hilsher

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:1-6 ESV