UNITY IN THE BODY OF CHRIST, HIS CHURCH

Unity In The Body of Christ                                                            James 3

"But seek ye first the Kingdom of God,
and His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you." Matthew 6: 33 

 When we reflect on this passage in Matthew 6, then in James 3, there 
is a  principle  taught we might all  practice  to best  advantage as  we; 
"seek..the Kingdom of God and His righteousness."  It is the practice 
of submitting our  wills to the will of any within the assembly.  We will 
practice the art of forgiveness, without regard to the nature or degree 
the wrong perpetrated against us, we must make a practice of  prefer-
ring  others,  their ideas and  wishes ahead of  our own.  According to 
Scripture under  consideration and other  passages in the New Testa-
ment, any other course of action may well result in schism in the body 
of Christ.
  
     James 3 begins with handling of the tongue, or conversation.  This 
seems to be  the first area  in which  we have  opportunity to exercise 
the  discipline  of   preferring  others.   In  conversation  it is  easy  to  
interrupt,  speak over another or  want to display our superior under-
standing of a matter before the group.  The correct approach is; fully 
hear others first.  In doing so  we may  be spared  the  humiliation of  
displaying our total misunderstanding of  a matter.   It  gives opport-
unity to  affirm the statements of  another using our insight to encou-
rage  the group, to clarify a point that may have been presented in a 
less than crystal manner.  We have all observed the one in any group  
who  has the ability to  listen to everyone's  input, summarize a situa-
tion, and add  pertinent  missing factors  as  the one who speaks last 
or  near to last.  This  gives opportunity to know the mind of a group 
before exposing an  incomplete understanding of  a situation,  it also 
gives him/her, the ability to  put into coherent order a topic that  has 
been "re-hashed" to a point of confusion.  As in all instruction  from 
Scripture, this practice enables one to honor the injunction; "...quick  
to  hear and  slow to  speak."  “Quick  to hear and slow  to  speak  ” 
shows respect for other speakers,  protects ones self and is honoring 
to God and His Word.

      A final  benefit of deferring one's comments until  all others have
opportunity to speak,  is the privilege this affords to put facts in per-
spective, in coherent order and bring the discussion back to the main 
thing.  The main thing is reminding all present of how a matter being 
discussed will bring glory to our Lord or to show how a  matter might  
reflect  poorly on him.   If  we have been in submission to  the others  
throughout the discussion,  this will give our  remarks weight.  If  we 
have attempted to push an agenda, we have already lost the respect 
of  the group and will not b  heard.  Doing  the right thing in the right 
way at  the right time is a wonderful  way to bring honor to our Lord,
and edify  the body of  Jesus Christ (the church) in the bond of unity. 

              Unity within any group does not indicate "sameness."
                    Remember to never sacrifice sound doctrine on
                      the altar of agreement or "apparent peace."
                             
                                                                                          donporter  11.22.12