Pastor Matt Chandler of The Village Church in Texas, recently put out a video encouraging Christians to unite in the face of a changing and complex culture, explaining that Jesus’ intent is to see believers come together in trust and grace.
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“The heart of Jesus Christ … is that, for Christians, our relationship to one another should be one of unity, and partnership, and joy, and trust and grace,” Chandler said. “But, in reality, there’s quite a bit of division among the brothers and sisters who make up the Christian church.”
Considering a changing culture in which “hostility and marginalization” is more prone to unfold, the pastor said that he believes Christians are going to have to look past differences to “make a real concerted effort to walk in greater unity,” to have more grace for one another and to work hard not to unfairly vilify fellow believers.
Chandler said that there are certainly issues that divide the church and urged Christians to have open and friendly dialogue about them and to, as much as possible, “walk in unity with one another.”
“My appeal … would be as best you can let’s make the most important thing, that 1 Corinthians 15 passage from the apostle Paul about what’s of utmost importance, let’s let that be the closed handed part here,” he said. “And then let’s begin to have dialogue around these secondary issues that tend to divide us.”
Chandler concluded by imploring his fellow Christians to have grace on social media and to be careful how they are framing the faith of their fellow believers.
“Please, please, please be careful of what you carpet bomb on social media, what you decide is something that makes someone or doesn’t make someone a Christian that’s really outside of how the Bible does it,” he said. “And let’s learn to be more generous with one another.”
(H/T: Christian Post)