Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; – Jesus (Matthew 12:25)
Does this apply to Jesus’ bride, the church? The church has been divided against itself since before the New Testament letters were written. Don’t believe me, read the letters!
Followers of Jesus are definitely not perfect people. We struggle on a daily basis to follow him, to keep our eyes set on his glory. At the same time, we do so much to divide his kingdom. There are literally thousands of denominations and Christian sects in America. Why? How important are our individual beliefs? Why do we cut ourselves off from other well-meaning followers of Jesus who believe differently? Is not the log in our eye greater than the speck in our brother’s? How much good could we do, if we set aside our differences and embraces the most important thing we had in common?
These questions are some that I struggle with.
I hear you on this! I think one reason for all the division in the Kingdom is our propensity to make the minor things major, and the major things minor. The entirety of the gospel is that, through the action of our first parents, sin entered into our nature and separated us from our God; Jesus Christ took on our human form so that He could satisfy the requirement for righteousness (aka no more sin nature) before God ON OUR BEHALF! That’s it! That’s the gospel; everything else comes below that; nothing can be more important than that.
Anyways, let me get off the pulpit lol! Individually, I choose to interact with people on the basis of this gospel and pay very little mind to the details of how they’ve chosen to live out and express their faith in God.
One comment: difference of doctrines taught