Unityનમૂનો

No record of wrongs

First Corinthians 13 is a famous feel-good passage talking about how we should love one another. Verse 4 starts with: ‘Love is patient, love is kind…’ But as we read on, verse 5 can be quite challenging: ‘It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.’ Yet these are things we often find ourselves doing. How quickly do we get angry at each other? It’s easy to get upset and not let grudges go. Easy to feel we’re in the right and the other person totally wrong. But how damaging is this for unity! We who are brothers and sisters in Christ are more like squabbling siblings than the family known for its love.

So how can we do this today? The words in our verse give us a hint. We could honour each other, seek the good of the other person over our own desires, be slow to anger and quick to forgive. And above all, to love them like they’re a member of our family.

God has called our family to be radically different to the families around us. He’s offered us adoption into His family as His precious child. He wants us to be united in love despite our differences and because of our differences. In John 13:35, Jesus said, ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’. Why will they know we belong to Jesus? Because it’s pretty radical to see people who are different loving one another; people who get on each other’s nerves choosing to set aside the offence and forgive one another. That is different! And that is meant to be so attractive that others around us would want to join this family.

Written by JODIE WILLIAMS