Reading 19: Mutual upbraiding or upbuilding?

Church fights are the worst, right? Because the stakes are high for my spiritual life and because sin makes it all about me, I have to win. In order for me to be right, in, or saved, you must be wrong, out, or damned. You get the picture.

We know from Acts that Paul and Peter don’t see eye to eye on how the faith calls us to behave. Peter says you have to be circumcised and observe dietary and ritual purity laws and festivals; Paul says no. Basically, Peter says belonging to and following Christ requires becoming thoroughly Jewish first. Paul, the quintessential Jew himself, balks at that notion as it reeks of or leads to works righteousness.

Just as we have our divisive issues in the life of the church today, especially moral, sexual, and justice ones that polarize and threaten not just the unity but the very existence of the body, so were these issues in the early Church seen as threats to the very Gospel of grace in Jesus Christ and thus of the essence of the Church itself.

Then, and now, Paul is trying to wave that banner of grace as highly as possible while acknowledging that there will be all sorts of differences. Amid these differences, we are to “welcome one another” (14:1), not demonize, belittle, shame, etc. All of us by merely existing “live to the Lord and die to the Lord.” Christ is thus the glue who holds us all together in community despite our differences, and the power of the Holy Spirit (v. 17) can and will, through her gifts, bring righteousness, peace, and joy.

Mutual upbuilding rather than mutual upbraiding is our calling in Christ (v. 19), which sets us free to serve!

Assuming that what sort of food people eat isn’t the source of deep division that threatens the unity of Christ’s Church, then what are some of the sources of that division?

What do you think, if anything, God does “require” of us? Why?

Gracious God, our tendency is always to judge others while thinking more highly of ourselves and our own righteousness than we ought. Grant us humble and welcoming hearts, we pray, and wise discerning of those things that perhaps are important but not essential to the unity of your Church. We pray this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

–The Rev. Dr. Timothy M. Smith is the current bishop of the NC Synod. Prior to being bishop, he served as pastor to St. Paul’s, Startown; Grace, Boone; and Redeemer, Atlanta. He and his wife have three grown children and three one-year-old grandsons.