Nov. 2, 2008
Background Scripture: 1 Corinthian 12:3-21; Ephesians 4:1-16
Devotional Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:4-20

If you are old enough, some of you may remember the epic motion picture “Gone With The Wind.” Even if you were not yet born when it premiered in 1939, you probably have seen the movie, read the book or at least heard of it.

The title refers to what happened when our nation disintegrated in a monstrous, bloody Civil War that, like a mighty hurricane, devastated our land and its people. Although the war itself lasted only four years, the brokenness has lasted 140 years and is still healed only in part.

Christians have been involved in our own spiritual civil war that has lasted for millennia, dividing followers of Jesus into warring factions that bring shame to the Good News of Jesus Christ. The unity to which Ephesians testifies is gone with the winds of congregational factions and denominational schisms, demonstrating to the world a fractured body of Christ.

Winds of doctrine

Ephesians is read in every Christian church, but we do not pay much attention to its admonition to “attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:13,14).

It’s not the understanding, but the doing of it, that is the hard part. Actually, it is “hard” only because there is something in human nature that thrives on dissention and division.

A chronic illness confined an elderly Scotsman to his house. Daily he sank closer to death, until, one day, his wife came saying, “Och, the minister’s here from the kirk to pray with you.”

With a surprising burst of energy, the man bellowed, “I dinna want to pray with him, I want to argue with him!”

Given the choice, many would choose argument instead of prayer. Argumentation is often the fruit of prideful ego, arrogance and hostility, a contradiction to our calling as Christians: “I … beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”(4:1-3).

One!

We may delight in the “otherness” that separates us from other Christians and we may seek out isolated texts to justify our divisions, but Ephesians drives home the unity of our calling: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all …” (4:4-6).

Don’t try to justify dissention on the writer’s reference to “one faith,” because in the New Testament “faith” rarely means “creed” or “mental belief” – referring not to what the mind is thinking, but to the commitment of mind, body and spirit in which we entrust ourselves to God.

The late Thomas Merton once wrote: “I hope I will be able to give up controversy some day … When one gets older … one realizes the futility of a life wasted in argument, when it should have been given entirely to love.”

Our experiences of Christ may vary greatly, our means of expressing his power in our lives may be spoken in many different words, but the love that binds us to him must also bind us to one another.

His Church is meant to be the one shining example in the world of a people widely divergent, obviously unalike, who, nevertheless, despite the winds of apparent differences can live and work together in love and humility for the sake of something much bigger and more ultimate than their individual egos and differences.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.