horizontal AND vertical

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Matthew 5:23-24

Jesus taught that our relationship with God the Father is affected by our relationships with one another. Using the example of Old Testament temple sacrifice, Jesus teaches that atonement will not take place when deliberate disobedience ignores reconciliation with another person. The order Jesus insists is this: First reconcile with a another human person before you seek to reconcile with God and worship Him. Otherwise the horizontal dissonance will disrupt the vertical fellowship.

Why do we not take Jesus seriously in this clear teaching that unity in His Church matters? Why are we so quick to judge other believers unfairly? Why would we rather leave a church then do the work of reconciling with a brother or sister? In my 33 years of local church ministry I’ve seen it countless times: Unhappy at a church or with another Christian? Just ignore it, or slip away, maybe attend another church, but NEVER deal with the division. And the cycle repeats. Don’t get me wrong. There are times we may need to change churches for good reasons. But ignoring an issue by slipping out the back IS NOT the way to do that! Really it is unchristian to live in this kind of divisiveness. Our hearts can be false to the One Who died to bring us all to Himself, Whose prayer in John 17 for all who would ever believe in Him was that His church would be one just as He and the Father are one.

It is so discouraging to see petty cultural and political divisiveness raise such loud disruption in the Body of Christ. How we need to hear and obey Jesus in these matters. We worship God best when we also love our brothers the most and refuse to let divisions separate us from each other. Ultimately these unresolved conflicts severely hinder our ability to worship God as we should.

Lord Jesus,

Give me the heart for reconciling and peacemaking that is Yours! Help me to repent of my own petty judgmentalism and seek to be united with brothers and sisters in You! Draw me to my brothers and sisters so we may love one another well and find the gospel community that You made for us that is above and beyond the petty divisiveness of sin, worldly concerns, and the things we do not control.

Amen