Turn to Ephesians 4:15. Actually, let us begin at Ephesians 4 and read through verse 16.
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance, or forbearance, for one another in love,
being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, Who is over all and through all and in all.
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.”
Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?
He Who descended is Himself also He Who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man,
to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,
by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him Who is the head, even Christ,
from Whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies,
according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
And one other verse: Colossians 2:19.
And not holding fast to the head, from Whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with the growth which is from God.
Once again, Paul emphasizes holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with the growth which is from God.
What I would like for us to consider together this morning is this matter of joints of supply.
You cannot read very far into Paul’s epistles without running into the thought of one another. They are filled with this concept of one another and our relationships with one another within the body of Christ.
Everything is within the context of our relationship with one another. Our growing is in the context of our relationship with one another. Our coming to grasp more fully Who the Lord is is in the context of our lives together with one another.
The way that the reality of Who the Lord Jesus is, the way that the reality of this life that we have received is expressed, is through our relationships with one another.
Yes, I know it would be a lot easier if we could go off to a monastery somewhere, get in a little box, and know it all. But the glory of the Lord is such that the manifold wisdom of God, the manifold glory of Who He is, can only be expressed and experienced in the context of all the saints.
What I would like for us to do this morning is consider this matter of the joints of supply: exactly what that is, why it is so important, and the principles behind it—in other words, how it is practically expressed in our lives.
As I mentioned, the Bible is full of “one another”: submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ; regarding one another as more important than yourself; bearing with one another; forgiving one another, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you.
This matter of one another, this matter of joints of supply, and how essential it is that we be built together, has come clearer and clearer to us in the context of these meetings.
I cannot even express what a blessing these meetings that the brothers have had together have been.
As we gathered together, the initial issue had to do with the fellowship groups. It all kind of had to do with headcount. It was like, “Well, it looks like the boat is kind of heavy on this side and kind of light on this side. What are we going to do?”
But as we gathered together and sought the Lord, He had something much deeper on His mind. He had something much deeper in His heart that He wanted to lead us into. That has to do with joints of supply.
That has to do with the essential nature of this matter: how joints of supply are an integral part of our lives together and an integral part of coming to know what the Lord has for us.
When we came together, we found how easy it is to have meetings and times where we kind of get all together in the box, but do not have relationships—to have acquaintances, but not be built together; to have relationships from afar.
The other matter was that we were seeing a phenomenon of new brethren, beloved brethren, being added in our midst in the context of meetings, but without us having a heart to really make sure that every brother and sister was brought into this fellowship of life that we have with the Lord and this communion that we have with Him and with one another because of this common life that we have.
Take a look for just a second at what kind of relationships we mean. We talk about joints of supply, relationships, and that type of thing between the members of the body of Christ.
Of course, this does not mean that meetings and acquaintances do not count. We can come here, with all the seats focused forward, and we are looking to the Lord to hear from the Lord. That is a blessing. It is a blessing that the Lord has given us His Word.
But in the same way that there is the grace of the ministry of the Word, and in the same way that there is the grace of remembering the Lord at the Lord’s table, there is also the grace of fellowship.
As I mentioned, we can come to meetings and not really know each other. We can come and put on the happy face and say, “Hey, everything is fine,” and walk away in silent desperation.
When we began the brothers’ meetings, the thing that really struck me was the multiplicity and diversity of the expressions of the life of the Lord Jesus.
This began when we had our first family meeting concerning the groups. I was really impressed with the incredible diversity of burden that the Lord had placed on brothers’ and sisters’ hearts concerning ways that His life could be expressed: different facets of meeting together, different types of Bible study, and different approaches to the Word.
The problem was that we were not in one mind. All of the expressions of life were expressions of the life of the Lord. It was not like brothers or sisters would stand up and say something and you would say, “Oh, that is wrong.” It was not like that.
It was simply that there was diversity, and that is a characteristic of the life of the Lord. It is multifaceted. But we are called to walk together with one another.
There was diversity, but we were not of one mind. It was almost like we saw issues as either-or wars: “It is either going to be my way, or it is going to be their way, or it is going to be this way, or it is going to be that way.”
We kind of found, through this experience of having to crash-land and break through this lack of really being knit heart to heart with one another, some things that were not too pretty: suspicion of one another’s motives.
These are characteristics of things that happen when relationships break down, when relationships are only this deep and are not heart to heart—where there is not a meeting heart to heart, sharing and communing with one another, and sharing the life that we have received.
We were not really knowing one another’s hearts, not really in relationship. It so often happens that we did not realize it until we were in a crisis.
That is one reason why we feel very strongly that, even after this matter of where to go with the groups and Bible studies is settled, it is so important that we continue to gather together.
There is no reason for us to lose what we gain in the Lord. There is no reason for this being of one mind, looking to the Lord, to be lost.
And when I say “one mind,” I am not saying uniformity. I am not saying, “Okay, we finally got everybody crammed down into the box, and everybody looks the same now.” Anything but that.
It is recognizing the unity and diversity in the body of Christ, recognizing Christ in one another, and being able to share the life that we have without being offended, suspicious of one another, or feeling like, “Whoa, if they get that, then I cannot have this.” That type of thing just comes from not being joined together.
In the same way that it is not just a matter of meetings or acquaintances, it is also not just hanging out together. It is being able to meet with another believer and really share heart to heart, or to reach out to another believer and meet a need.
Conversely, it is having a need far beyond your personal ability and having a brother or sister in Christ come and stand with you, paint with you, or clean gutters with you—ways that the Lord Jesus ministers Himself by way of the joints of supply.
The Lord brings us face to face with this in our personal lives. In our house, it is a standing principle that we are incapable of doing home repair without the body of Christ.
No matter how small a project is, when I start it, it leads to a crisis situation where I need help. I am home-repair impaired.
I usually fight it and try to work things out myself, getting right to the brink of, “If I do anything else, I am really going to mess it up.” Then finally I make the phone call.
On a more serious note, the same thing is true with personal problems. There are times when I personally have been in a personal crisis where it seemed like I had blown it pretty badly.
The Lord uses other members of the body to express in flesh and blood what His heart really is.
What a blessing it is to have brothers and sisters whom you can call at three o’clock in the morning and say, “I need to come over right now.” They receive you into their house, minister Christ to you, stay up all night, drink coffee with you, and through their ministry you see in your heart how wonderful the Lord is—and how He really will never leave you nor forsake you.
Let us look at relationships according to the Scriptures and why they are so important.
First, because we are members of the body of Christ. This is not like being members of a social club or members of an organization. Members of social clubs join based on common interests, hobbies, or perhaps political agreement.
That is convenient. People can kind of slip in and out, change their minds, and decide they want to be with another group. They can flip-flop and do whatever they want.
But the members of the body of Christ are joined together by a common life that we share. When we are born again, we are born again into a common life that we share with every other believer.
Not just believers with whom we see eye to eye concerning the rapture and that kind of thing, and not just the believers we happen to meet with on Sunday morning, but every believer. There is a common life that we share with one another.
He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
—1 Corinthians 6:17
Ephesians 4:3-5 speaks about that common life:
Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace:
one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism.
Be diligent to preserve it. In the translations, they have the words, “There is one body and one Spirit.” Actually, “there is” was supplied to clarify the sentence. What it says is, “Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.”
The word one is somewhat prominent in this passage. There is the reality of the one body, the one life, the one faith, and the one baptism.
When the Scriptures speak about the body of Christ, it is not merely an illustration, as though the church is like a body because some people do the meals and some people do other things. It is a reality. We are the body of Christ. We are members of one another.
The only way we can experience the fullness of life that the Lord wants us to have is as a corporate body. How in the world can we come to know the manifold wisdom of God? How can we experience the manifold expressions of Who He is alone?
The Scripture talks about growing up into all the fullness of Christ. That is addressed to the whole body. It is all of us together.
We run into obstacles that hinder us from entering in and really engaging ourselves in walking in the reality of these relationships into which we were born with all other believers.
The first is independence and pride. Until there is a crisis, we honestly believe that we can make it on our own. It is like, “Hey, me and Jesus, we have it all worked out.”
We can hide behind relationships that are only acquaintances. The thing that brings reality out is when there is a crisis or when there comes a matter of correction. All of a sudden, you know whether there is a heart-to-heart relationship there or whether it is only a “Hey, how are you doing?” relationship.
Relationships naturally break down unless they are maintained. It is not the kind of thing that you can put on the back burner, go about the rest of your life, and expect everything to be fine when there is a crisis.
No. Relationships have to be maintained. We maintain the unity of the Spirit.
Lastly, the hindrance is the enemy. He knows the Bible better than we do and knows that the ultimate purpose of God is bound up in us being built together.
Beyond our personal needs, our relationships with one another are intimately related to the purpose of God.
First, the calling of God itself is corporate. The one hope of our calling is a calling to the entire body of Christ together.
I think the culture in which we are brought up really operates against us in reading these passages. When we hear the word you, we think about me. When we hear Paul address things to “you,” we think about ourselves individually. He is speaking to us.
We are in such an individualistic society that we filter everything through that, and we miss so much of what the Lord has for us.
Just in case you think I am out to lunch, let us read Paul’s prayer again. Paul’s prayer is for the whole church: Ephesians 3:14.
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
of Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory,
that ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man;
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be strong to apprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,
that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God.
There is a fullness here—a fullness of apprehension, a fullness of apprehending the fullness of Who the Lord is—that we cannot enter into individually. The Lord is after a corporate body.
This has everything to do with joints of supply. We will get practical in just a few minutes. Do not think we are just going to stay all up here.
Secondly, for those note people, the first point was that the calling of God is corporate. Secondly, the eternal purpose of God is corporate.
I will not go into much detail here because we have heard dear brothers share so much on these matters: one body, one bride—not a whole bunch of brides. It is not a harem. It is one bride. One church.
Ephesians 2:19-22 says:
So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners,
but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,
being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone;
in Whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord;
in Whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
It is a matter of being built together. It is not even being built loosely together, kind of like net webbing or something, but being compacted together and fitly framed together.
I was reading some physiology books, looking into joints and what the deal is with joints. They were talking about the nature of joints: they can be flexed in such a way that the space between them is basically gone, so that, for all intents and purposes, they are one piece.
This involves us being knit together. It is a call to being intimately knit together, one with another.
We need to make every effort to know one another and fellowship with one another. I know I am not saying anything we do not already know, but our lives are so busy. We have so many different things going on.
But we miss out on so much. The Lord will meet us in our personal quiet times. It is not like He is calling us to abandon our personal communion with Him. But there is so much more fullness.
That is why it is such a blessing to hear so many different brothers share—at openings, in Friday-night Bible studies, and in other settings—because we do not have the only take on the matter.
People are able to share out of the way that the Lord has built and knit Who He is into the fabric of different brothers’ and sisters’ lives—a way that we can experience only through fellowship with one another.
Thirdly, God’s victory is manifested through the whole church together.
To the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places
might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God,
according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
—Ephesians 3:10-11
That finishes the introduction. Let us go back to relationships.
Paul’s epistles naturally fall into two sections: the principle and the application. The spiritual realities are to impact our lives, and in virtually every instance, the application has to do with our relationship with one another.
That is the way that these vast spiritual truths are expressed, incorporated, and become flesh and blood: through our relationships with one another.
It is through the relationships between the members of the body that the body builds itself up in love. And it is a growth which is from God. It is not just from the efforts of the parts.
That is one of the greatest blessings. When the members of the body come together, there is a strength far beyond just the sum of the parts. There is an expression of life far beyond just the sum of the parts.
There is a ministry of the body building itself up in love, far beyond just the sum of the parts. There is a manifestation of the life of the Head through the members, and the body builds itself up in love.
Excuse me. I think I need to work through this Sudafed and heater air.
As we started with the key verse, the verse I wanted to look at was this: “From Whom the whole body”—from the Head—“being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
Let us look at this verse more closely.
First of all, it is in Christ that we are called to grow. We are called to grow up to Him, Who is the Head, from Whom the body builds itself up in love, unto Him.
It is not, “Let us get together and have a social club,” or, “Let us just get together and spend time together.” It is a matter of this life that we share working as we are in communion with one another.
The body builds itself up in love unto the Lord. It is from Him and to Him.
Second, it is the whole body. No member left behind.
Ephesians 4 speaks about those whom God has given: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
These were not given to do the work of the ministry of building the body. I hope you get the right sense of this. Verse 12 says, “For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”
The role of those whom He has given to the church is to equip the saints for the work of service unto the building up of the body.
As Brother Stephen shared a few weeks ago, we are a kingdom of priests. We are not a kingdom of spectators watching priests do their thing. We are a kingdom of priests.
The Lord has given gifted men in our midst to give vision, shepherd, and teach. But the work of service comes from the members of the body.
When the members do not function properly, it forces the pastor-teachers into a caretaking role. They cannot help it, because they love the assembly.
Next, we are fitted together. The passage speaks of being “fitted and held together.”
“Fitted together” in this verse is the same word as in Ephesians 2, where it speaks about being fitly framed together into a habitation of God in the Spirit.
This means compacted together. It is not a confederation.
I am kind of a history buff. When this country first gained independence, before the current Constitution, it operated under something called the Articles of Confederation. Basically, it all boiled down to, “I will do my thing and you do yours.”
It was a confederation of states. They were loosely joined together, and at least in name, they were supposed to take care of each other and be a union. They called themselves officially the United States of America and that type of thing.
But what happened was that each state was still looking out for its own interests rather than the interests of the whole. It brought weakness to the whole.
There would be a tax on one state, and the other states would say, “Whew, I am glad I am far away from that.” There were devastating war expenses after the War of Independence, and the states fought against one another, saying, “Hey, that is not my responsibility.”
Being fitted together and connected means each member caring for one another and being joined to one another. We are members one of another. It is not a confederation.
It is according to the working in measure of each individual part: the unity of the body and diversity in expression of the common life, that same life that we share.
This matter of unity and diversity characterizes this section in Ephesians. It also characterizes 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14.
Paul goes again and again from unity to diversity, unity to diversity. In Ephesians 4, he speaks first of the diversity of expressions of the one life that depends on each individual member, but is unto the building up of the one body.
Now, this can be a cause for stumbling for us if we do not keep in mind that one body has different members. A foot is really different from a hand, but they are both members of the body.
We may ask, “What is my role? What is my function?” A finger and a toe are pretty dramatically different, but they share a common life. They need to share a common care for one another, because if they do not both do their part, they are going to drag the other one into pretty much trouble.
In being joined together, compacted together, and fitted together, where is liberty?
For ye were called for freedom, brethren;
only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh,
but through love be servants one to another.
—Galatians 5:13
All of the energy, all of this life, is unto the building up of the body. We have the privilege of choosing, by our own free will, to walk together and to be built together.
This being built together is a manifestation before the principalities and powers of the supernatural life of Christ that we have received, because that is so unlike our natural life.
Our natural life veers unto independence every time, unto self-seeking every time. But this being built together, this being willing to be vulnerable before one another and willing to be Christ to one another, is a manifestation of the life of the Lord. It is so not our life. It is Him.
Okay, now here we go. We are getting practical.
First off, we cannot be built together without being together. We cannot frame it and have it be a theoretical thing on the refrigerator. We need to make time for one another.
As some brothers have shared, the pace of our lives is not very conducive to spirituality. It is a pretty furious clip.
It is an analogy people use a lot, but it is like eating. If you do not do it for a while, first you get really hungry, but then all of a sudden you stop being as hungry, and then you just die.
I mean, I am serious. Fellowship is that kind of thing. We are made to be in fellowship with one another. We are made so that, through those joints of supply, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
When we allow the busyness of life to get us into that rut of home to work, home to bed, work to home, home to bed, we just dry out.
At first, it is like, “Oh man, I wish we could have some people over.” Before long, it turns into, “I am too tired to have anybody over.” But the bottom line is, you are too tired not to have some people over.
Because when we gather together, the Lord washes our feet. It is a grace of fellowship.
The fellowship groups are a method that the Lord has given us to be more intimately built together with one another. It is not the only method. It is just kind of a toe-in-the-water type of thing—an opportunity to get to know one another a little better and to look into the Word together.
But that is just the beginning. It was such a blessing to hear different brothers and sisters share the burdens on their hearts about getting together at other times, having additional Bible studies, and asking, “Why cannot they meet every week?”
Praise God, they can meet every week, and that is wonderful. The whole point is, let us be built together. Let us experience our glorious Lord together.
That is recognizing the importance of the proper working of each part to the building up of the whole.
First Corinthians 12 talks about how one part of the body cannot say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body.” You, dear brother and sister, are indispensable.
When brothers and sisters gather together, the Lord manifests Himself through the members of the body.
We may think, “What in the world? I mean, I am a wreck. How in the world am I going to minister anything but ‘Woe is me,’ and ‘Help’?” But when we gather together, the Lord expresses His life to us, and a lot of times we do not even realize it.
Some brothers met together a few weeks ago just for the opportunity to pray and be together. It was not like one person stood up and solved everybody’s problems or anything like that.
A lot of it was just the expression, “Hey, this is what is on my heart,” and not, “This is what is on my heart, and is it not wonderful?” It was, “This is what is on my heart, and what in the world am I going to do?”
But as we shared with one another, as we fellowshipped with one another, the Lord met us.
When you come to a gathering, 1 Corinthians 14 talks about how one has a prophecy, a word of exhortation, a tongue, or whatever.
I think we can have the misconception that when it says that you are a member of the body, you are a toe, and therefore you will forever be a toe. You will be in shoes, people will not see you, and, well, sorry, but you are tough.
But in the body of Christ, the Lord manifests Himself in manifold ways through the members.
What I mean is that five brothers and sisters may come together to fellowship with one another and look in the Word. There may be a day when one brother has a sense that something does not seem right about a particular direction.
That does not make him Inspector Clouseau or the detective from that point on. The next time they gather together, that same person may be the Barnabas who says, “Hey, brother, come and be with us.”
“These guys may think you are a little flaky and stuff, but there is a life that we share together. The kind of music you listen to is not the ultimate issue in life. We are going to fellowship together. Come on.”
I apologize for the poor examples. It is hard to express it fully.
Back to the example of our group: four or five brothers, five or six brothers, got together. One brother would share about a need that he knew about, and at that point the Lord would burden another brother, saying, “Hey, I know what we can do.”
One brother would say, “Hey, I am really struggling with such and such,” and the Lord would burden another brother to reach out and minister Christ. As the body comes together, the life of the Lord is expressed.
So it is a matter of functioning and encouraging one another to function.
It involves walking by faith. It is the life of the Head that energizes the body. We are members of His body, and He works in us both to will and to work according to His good pleasure.
Next is recognizing that the end is the one body. The end goal is the one body. It is not two classes of people: one group being the overcomers and the other group being those who barely made it.
Galatians 6:2-5 teaches that the weaker members are not an inconvenience or a hindrance to the strong. They are their responsibility.
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
For each man shall bear his own burden.
What that means is, if you think you are way up here and the other people are way down there, guess what? You have another thing coming. Our responsibility is to bear with one another and lift one another up.
Do we feel like we have to step over other people in our everyday lives in order to get to our ministry? If one member suffers, we all suffer.
We need to recognize once again that this is a prime target for the enemy. The individual member may be strong, but without the joints and bands, the body is disabled.
They talk about how strong the hip bone—or the femur—is. I am not a doctor. But it is amazing how strong that lower bone is; without the knee, it is disabled. Without that joint, it is disabled.
The joints are among the most important and yet the most vulnerable parts of the body. It is the thing that puts athletes out of the race. Usually it is not a broken bone—they can put that back together. You get a problem with the joints, and that is pretty serious.
We have to commit to spiritual engagement. I happened to run across something from Sonny Bradley a couple of years ago after the conference planning, where we talked about spiritual engagement.
It is easy to sit back and become the spectator. The Lord calls us to spiritual engagement—to emotionally engage with one another.
Finally, let us take a quick look at how these joints of supply are maintained.
Ephesians 4:15-16 gives the summing up of the matter: the church building itself up in love, in Christ and unto Christ. Ephesians 4:1-3 gives the requirements. The latter gives context to the former.
Without seeing that it is the body building itself up in love, then “I urge you, therefore, to walk in humility and lowliness and meekness” just sounds like a to-do list—do these things and do not do these things.
But it is an issue of maintaining the unity of the Spirit, because the whole thing depends on the body building itself up in love.
The first few verses speak of the means of unity: lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, and forbearing one another in love. Without these things, unity cannot be preserved.
We have to trust the Head. I heard another brother share this: never insist. We have to trust that the Head is more than capable of correcting the body.
The first step toward unity is humility. Without this, there will be no meekness, patience, or forbearance.
A verse that came up in one of our meetings a few weeks ago was James 3:13-18:
Who is wise and understanding among you?
Let him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom.
But if ye have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth.
This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace.
Ephesians 5 speaks about submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ: condescending to bear one another’s burdens, not domineering over one another and giving laws to one another, but submitting yourselves to one another and preferring one another.
Matthew Henry puts this well:
Forbearing one another in love signifies bearing their infirmities out of a principle of love,
and so as not to cease to love them on account of these.
The best Christians have need to bear with one another, and to make the best of one another,
to provoke one another’s graces, and not their passions.
We find much in ourselves which is hard to forgive ourselves,
and therefore we must not think it much if we find that in others which we think hard to forgive them.
And yet we must forgive them, as we forgive ourselves.
Pursue peace. Romans 14 says:
So then let us follow after things which make for peace,
and things whereby we may edify one another.
The context here is important, and I will close with this, believe it or not.
There are two brothers. One brother has faith before God to eat meat that would be unclean according to Jewish ceremonial laws, but his brother does not. It has turned into a bone of contention.
The issue was not the difference in understanding, but making the difference in understanding a bone of contention between the two.
The strong despised the weak and said, “Oh, well, are they not free from that yet? Are they not free from that ceremonial law?”
But the weak censured the strong and said, “Well, you are just walking in sin. That is why you do not care whether it is ceremonially clean meat.”
Paul does not silence either one, but brings them into a gentle forbearing with one another. That is an illustration of maintaining the unity of the Spirit.
Paul could have come in and clubbed one or the other and said, “What are you doing, judging your brother?” Or, “What are you doing being in bondage under these Jewish rituals, under these Jewish ceremonial laws?”
But what he said was, “Pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.”
As I said, we will finish. It is maintaining the unity of the Spirit until we attain to the unity of the faith—bearing with one another.
Father, we come to You in Jesus’ name, Lord, and we are just so thankful for Your Word.
Lord, for Your graciousness to us, we pray that You would bless Your Word, Lord, that it would be a blessing to our hearts.
Lord, may the things that You are saying stick. Lord, the things that were just my conceptualizations, would You just wash them away?
Lord, we are just so thankful that we can be at home with one another, Lord.
Lord, there is no temptation that hath befallen us but such as is common to man.
Lord, You meet us in our weakness and sustain us, Lord; and You comfort us in our affliction so that we are able to comfort those in any affliction with the comfort wherewith we have been comforted by God.
Lord, we just look to You. We pray that You would expand our hearts for the thing that is on Your heart, Lord.
Especially as we are looking to facilitate ways that we can be together, ways that we can come to know each other better, and ways that we can minister You to one another.
Thank You, Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.