Nagging, backbiting and gossip. It is so disheartening to find it in church. How can we claim to be followers of Christ when his body is a bunch of cliques? How will society ever see Jesus if we can't get along? Surely it was never like this back in the day. . . but then again, Euodia and Syntyche apparently were just like that.
Perhaps what is striking is not that they had contention in the church but that Paul says that their names are written in the book of life. Sometimes we tend to think of people as members of a local congregation but maybe not with a claim to heaven. Yet these bickering women were among those that had entry through the pearly gates.
It calls into question my own beliefs. Do I really see the church as belonging to Christ and that he wants to forgive and redeem her? Do I really believe that the church is more than a local group of people but rather is an entity that will last for eternity? Will I let Jesus be the judge and quit evaluating people based upon my own standards? Can I look at those I don't like very much or don't feel try very hard in their faith and see them as "written in the book of life?" Can I see the local congregation with all her faults as the bride of Christ?
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