Accepting

I was reading in Romans and I Corinthians today where Paul told the believers to accept one another and to respect one another's divergent views on what is right and what is wrong. He said that it's best to squash your own preference for a time in order to not offend someone else who may consider your freedom to be a sin. Paul's reason for this? So that the church would be unified in love. It is more important that unity prevail that our egos be propped up. In I Corinthians Paul told the believers that it's better to swallow a wrong and allow injustice to come to us and preserve unity rather than go to court against a brother. Only a person who views life through the lense of love would be able to do these sorts of things.

Personally, I don't like these injunctions of the Apostle. They get on my nerves. A liberty for me is good for everybody and it bugs the snot out of me that other people live their lives shouldering weights that slow them down. I want them to be free. But, the fact of the matter is that it's not my job to lead them to this freedom, it's His job. If for some reason he hasn't told them these things yet, or they haven't received it yet, then how is it my job to try to hijack God's job? It's not. My job is keep my mouth shut and submit my will to the will of the Father and show respect to my brother by doing it his way when I'm around him.

If somebody wrongs me I want to them to pay! I want justice! But Jesus desires mercy over sacrifice. That's the law of love. If a brother insists on ripping me off I'm supposed to bear it, not take them to court. Ok then, I'll be like the Pharisee who asked Jesus the definition of "neighbor", who is my brother? Is it necessarily somebody in my church? Or somebody who's theology is similar to mine? What if I'm suing a business owner who also professes to be a Christian? Hmmmm.... Perhaps it's better to accept a wrong and trust God to reprimand my enemy rather than take matters into my own hand, or worse yet, give an increasingly ungodly system the authority to rule over matters of the spirit. Besides, if it's money that's the issue aren't I merely a steward of God? If so, then they're wronging God, not me.

No matter. It's best to try to live at peace with all men whenever possible. There are enough people who will bother at me just because I'm a believer for me to add to their number by offending people and living in unforgiveness and drawing the line of division between us for them. Love requires the humility to let even the big stuff slide for the sake of peace.