"Make Every Effort"

I have heard many religious people use the example of the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas as a proof text for going each other’s way in disputable matters. Like a lawyer citing a case ruling as precedence setting for their case, they actually think that this example gives them license to devise their own mechanics of religion and split with others who disagree, calling them “dissenters” or the “weaker brother.” “We won’t let the minority run our church,” they say. “We have the freedom to do what we want and we won’t let anyone hold us back.” I wonder what is so important that they are being held back from?

This is a sad testimony of those who have been saved by the grace of our loving God and the sacrifice of His son. Paul himself, the recipient of this grace, calls us to something higher than our own wants.


Rom. 14:13 - 15:7 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Unity is more important than anything we devise to bring praise to God. Loving each other, as Jesus has commanded, is the mark of a Christian and will bring about the unity that God seeks for us to have. This is how others will know that we are Christians and it’s fruit is what glorifies God.

So, don’t seek your own way when deciding matters of opinion in the church. Don’t use the majorities stance to create things that are pleasing to man but seek the unity that comes with loving each other and deferring to each other in matters of opinion which is pleasing to God. Seek to bind the church together in love. Look to include the “least of these” instead of devising mechanics and citing scriptures that exclude even one brother or sister. This is what the Pharisees did.

What’s become so important to you that you would split the body? Meat sacrificed to idols, a water fountain in the building, a kitchen, bible classes, one cup or multiple cups, one assembly or two, a praise team, women’s roles, the name of the church? What is pleasing to you? Would you give up your wants for your brother? It’s called love. Jesus did and commanded us to do the same to show our love for him.

Paul puts it another way in 1 Corinthians:

1 Cor. 8:9 - 13 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.

Paul again:

1 Cor. 13:2 - 13 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Let’s quit being children and exercising our freedom. “Make every effort” to love each other. Protect those who are weak and encourage the body to love each other. Let love be the catalyst for the unity that is so easily undermined by mans wants and desires. Put others first. Let others see Jesus living in us by being like-minded with him. Put love in it’s proper place so that the world will see us and know we are the disciples of the one who defined love and thus proclaim him as the savior of the world. Anything we can dream up as being good and important pales in comparison to loving one another as commanded by Jesus Christ.


Don Campbell