I am writing this on the fly and so the complete and correct quote eludes me but we have probably heard it in one form or another. “Why is the church the only army that wounds it’s own soldiers?” You probably read it and there is something that resonates.
In the last week or two, social media has been awash with Christians attacking one another in the public domain. It is not just in social media – our gatherings, our workplaces and our homes. Our witness to Christ and the gospel can be so easily tainted.
It’s nothing new though – religious leaders were not entirely welcoming to Jesus, Paul fell out with a few folk too….Christian history is full of it, that’s one reason for the Reformation.
However, not a our falling out is positive, the vast majority of the ‘wounding’ is damaging, painful and dishonouring to the one whose name we bear. The good news is that God can reclaim the ground eaten by the locust, that’s my prayer – God, reclaim the ground! Meanwhile, I challenge my own heart to see what I need to correct, my log is greater 😉
I should not be surprised at what I see but I long for the day when we dwell together in unity and recognise that it is there that The Lord commands the blessing.