Could I Be The Problem?
I just tried a little experiment. I wanted to see if I could trick my spellchecker. What I typed was “The Untied States of America.” Immediately, a suggested correction showed up. The suggestion was for me to change what I had typed to “The United States of America.”
Some might argue that our nation is becoming increasingly “untied” and that I am thinking of some political or social point that needs to be made. While I am reasonably sure that some points along those lines could be made and could have some validity, that was not the purpose of my “experiment.”
I was thinking about the importance and desirability of unity. I have difficulty thinking of a single aspect of our lives in which unity would not be a worthy goal. One exception to that would be for people to be united in something that could cause harm to themselves or others either now or in eternity. We might need to remember the following admonition:
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil… (Ex. 23:2).
I have spent most of my adult life in an attempt to preach the gospel of Jesus. In so doing, I have tried to emphasize that He was the One who prayed this about those who would follow Him:
“…that they all may be one…” (John 17:21)
It was never the Lord’s intention for people to claim to follow Him, but, at the same time, wear different names, teach differing doctrines, divide over matters of opinion, have tension because of personality conflicts, etc. Instead, consider what Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth where fissures were already developing in a local congregation:
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment (1 Cor. 1:10).
It is of much more than passing interest to notice the following reason that the appeal had to be made:
…[E]each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”
Four times in one short statement it is obvious that the problem is what some have called “the perpendicular pronoun,” which is “I.” That same pronoun may be the key to discovering the cause of dissension and discord in any of the areas of our lives. It may also be the key to finding the solution to disunity.
Whether we are talking about something as large as an entire nation or society or as small as a family unit or a friendship, there will always be the potential for being untied. At the same time, there will be a path to unity and harmony.
I am the only one who can make the decision for myself to be a person who unselfishly works toward the goal of having people to be united or one whose selfishness results in people being untied. Maybe all of us need to remember that, in what is often called “The Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus commended the peacemakers, not the piecemakers (Matt. 5:9).
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AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
