The same love

Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfil my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. – Philippians 2.1-2

Unity is the theme of this chapter, and indeed it is important through the rest of the book. At the very beginning when the church was small and weak and its enemies many it may have felt like they would never survive. The church needed to be unified to survive the great opposition.

So Paul puts it like this – ‘if you truly love Christ, if you find comfort in His love, if you say you fellowship in the Spirit, if you have affection and mercy there is something you need to do – be like minded.

Have the same love – have one accord – have one mind.’

That is a timeless message. It is one we need today just as much as our ancestors needed it then. Despite instructions like this the church has wandered far from what Paul writes about here. Rather than being like-minded, sharing in love, being of one accord, and having one mind the church seems determined to split and divide over any kind of issue. Instead of looking for reasons to unify we seem to look for reasons to divide.

We don’t have to agree on all the finer points of doctrine to have on purpose. We don’t need to do things exactly the same way in order to love each other. We don’t have to sing the same songs to have the same mind.

But we do have to have a common love for each other. I am quite sure that the persecuted church is a lot less picky about the finer points of who they do and don’t fellowship with. Even here in Ireland we don’t have the ‘luxury’ of finding Christians just exactly like us.

If the church is going to survive against admittedly growing opposition we need to make sure that we present one common front. If we keep picking each other off we are going to make the job a lot easy for the enemy.