Scripture Sundays Unveiled.

In the last month or two I have really been getting back into writing. For the most part, this has meant random blog entries without much focus. That has been fun, but I am not sure how relevant a lot of it has been.

I really first got into writing when I was a senior in high school. I joined Journalism as a class I thought would be an easy A for my senior year. I had a lot of friends in the class and they told me how fun it was, so I figured it was a win-win proposition: fun and easy both. It was those things, but I ended up getting way into it and probably spending more time on that class than I had any other single class in my high school career. I also found my favorite all time teacher. We ended up winning all sorts of awards and I found something that I really enjoyed and was even pretty good at - though most of my writing was juvenile smart alec stuff I got to write as the Opinions Editor.

I am starting to feel like I am writing quite a bit now, but going nowhere with it - so I wanted to add a bit of purpose, or focus. From now on I will be doing by best to write about something to be learned from scripture on Sundays and something I have learned about ministry when I write on mid-week on Wednesdays. If you prefer hearing me expose my own idiocy, tune in on the other days.

Since today is Sunday, I figured it is the perfect (and only rationale) day to unleash my Scripture Sundays on you.

I have a Bible in my bathroom. In my house, that is the best and maybe only place it is possible to get any quiet time - so I take advantage. Yesterday morning, I came across a cool little pericope that I thought was worth taking note of.

The passage in question is Ephesians 4:1-6 and is title "Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ." Pretty appropriate for a Sunday I'd say. The coolest part for me is taking this section and reading it backwards. Not all the way backwards, then it doesn't make sense - just start with the last verse and go back to the first. The emphasis here is, as you will soon see - oneness. Here we go. 

"one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all"

In looking at this backwards, we get to first see the reasons for the actions promoted, and among those actions we now first get to see the primary; the God and Father of all. He is the first and foremost, the everything. His ultimate oneness is the reason for ours.

The previous verse highlights how that transfers to us:


"one Lord, one faith, one baptism"

This is what defines a "Christian" at it's most basic. Taking Jesus as your Lord, sharing faith in His gospel, participating in His death and resurrection. Pretty tidy. Oftentimes unity in the Body gets disturbed due to secondary issues. Actually, it almost never gets disturbed due to the challenging of the primary issues.

If you disagree with the primary issues, ones that affect salvation, there comes a point fairly quickly where you are simply not a Christian -  at that point the disturbance of the peace is warranted, as the two cannot coexist in one "body." It then becomes division from the body, not within the body. Serious, but different.

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called"

Sitting in a church service often makes it hard to imagine that you are part of one body with all believers, in one spirit with one Spirit, celebrating the same hope. When you are doing things the way you do them, it is hard to imagine being in communion at that moment with people who are doing it differenty; the charismatics down the road or the Catholics around the corner.


I love going to big youth events and seeing a large group of young Christians come together and experience that unity on a large scale. It is cool to imagine the Spiritual unity we experience when we worship each week - it is even cooler to actually see that physical unity. It really a shame that sort of thing doesn't happen more often.

Little things split churches and leave them with deep schisms that often won't heal even after those generations have passed on. Smaller breaks of unity happen all the time when individuals, families, or even small groups leave one church for another in anger. The relationship breaks based on trivial matters that often end up being forgotten within a matter of months are heart-breaking.

Now comes the responsibility born by all members of the faith to avoid such tragedy:

"Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."

It turns out that much of the time, when people leave a church, they had been wanting to do so for a while, but the issue brought before them finally gave them a reason to do so. In that case, all your efforts at keeping unity are probably in vain - and the person doing the leaving is failing to make that effort themselves. That being said, we don't have license to simply write someone off as hopeless and give up our responsibility to continue in the effort:

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

Humble? Put others first, even (especially) when you don't think they deserve it. Yeah, if everyone spent less time trying to get everything working the way they thought was best, 97%+ of the conflict in the local church would be eliminated. Get over your preferences in music style, song selection, service set up, building design, and room decor. Matters of opinion are not matters for division. One of the biggest reasons for conflict is church leaders trying to please everyone and failing to please anyone.

Gentle? That's the opposite of harsh. Using the right words and tone can make the difference in striving for unity.

Patient? Yeah, people are pretty stupid a lot of the time. That includes me. That include you. That's why we are supposed to bear with one another in love - if we weren't all bumbling idiots a significant amount of the time that wouldn't be necessary. In all reality, the times when your patience is most being tested, you are most likely to be causing the same stress on your current adversary.

We have all been called to something more than the a life of divisiveness, of making small matters into big deals. I will conclude with the words Paul used to open this passage:

"As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received."