BACKGROUND:
As we serve willingly, our Christian servanthood ultimately does what slavery to the law cannot do—it fulfills the law! Quoting from Leviticus 19:18 (from the law), Paul explained that the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus made this same point (Matthew 22:35-39; Luke 10:25-28). In fact, the entire law is fulfilled as the Christian community acts in love toward one another through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul made it clear through this letter (and others) that the law cannot save anyone. But he did not cast aside the law as worthless. Believers must still be concerned with it; otherwise Paul would not have made this statement. No one could ever completely fulfill the law; but if someone could, the Christians (not the Judaizers) would most resemble that person because of their love for one another.
The source of the conflicts within the church of Galatia went back to the false teachers and the confusion they were causing among the believers (5:10). The presence of the conflict supports the theory that factions were developing in the church—some people going with the law-centered teachers, some staying with Paul and the gospel, and some deciding to pursue their every sinful whim based on the “freedom” they had in Christ.
Such continued confict would ruin their faith, their testimony, and ultimately the church itself. While some differences of opinion would be natural, the Galatians had gone beyond that. They disagreed on foundational issues. Like piranhas, they were destroying one another.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
Ephesians 4:4-6 says, "There is one body and one Spirit, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of us all." That verse lays out the essentials of our faith. But there are a lot of things in the Christian life, the Christian walk, that are not essentials. They're kind of open to however you interpret them, as you study, as you pray, as you ask God to show you. There's some things you're going to differ from other people on.
I point this out again, because COV is growing. God is building and growing and maturing the people of COV.We must be on guard to NOT allow the enemy to gain a foothold in our lives or our church. We must not allow petty annoyances or grievances to get us attacking each other or gossiping about others. We must do all we can to protect the unity and purity of what God is doing here at COV. We consider a lot of the petty disagreements between believers to be non essentials and in those there's liberty. In those we can have diversity.
Romans 14 says this: "Accept him whose faith is weak without passing judgment on disputable matters. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. So then each of us will give an account to himself to God. So whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God."
For instance: Some people ask, "Is COV a charismatic church?" This is not a charismatic church but we are not anti charismatic. There are people in this church who are very charismatic, who practice speaking in tongues, who believe that is an essential part of their faith and their walk with God. There are people who think that's appalling and they don't want anybody getting near them talking about speaking in tongues. Because we don't believe it's essential for salvation, it's not one of our eight core values and beliefs (go to the COV websight to see what they are) , it is one of the gifts of the spirit that God gives to whomever He will, we say you have liberty. If God has given you that gift, that's great, as long as you don't try to tell everybody else they have to have the same gift. That would make it something different. That's one example. We are not charismatic, but we are not anti-charismatic.
Here's another example - About the second coming of Jesus Christ. There are probably three main positions. You're either pre-millennial, post millennial, or amillennial. (If you have no idea what this means, don't worry about it!) There is liberty. The only thing that we believe is that Jesus Christ is coming back. It is our responsibility to be ready, to have our hearts ready to meet Him. Beyond that there are so many divergent views about the second coming of Christ. As long as you believe that, we can have liberty, we can discuss it, we can go back and forth in discussing. As long as the essential is you do believe Jesus Christ is coming back.
Someone asked me one time, "Will smoking send you to hell?" This is one of these disputable matters. I said, "No, it'll just make you smell like you've been there." A disputable matter.
Drinking. I received Christ at a church where anyone who drank at all was very suspect. No good Christian ever drank at all. At COV, we don't teach that because we don't think the Scripture reaches that. We think that the Scripture teaches drinking in moderation is all right. The operative words are "in moderation". Anything that causes you to give over the control of your life to something besides God is very dangerous. Drunkenness is always wrong in every circumstance. There is no place ever for drunkenness. Drinking in moderation is something else. However, as pastor I have taken a vow of abstinence -- complete abstinence -- partially because I don't want to add anything into my lives to get caught up in. But it is a disputable matter so there is freedom between you and the Lord, the Holy Spirit, in your life.
The point is: In essential things we have unity. And in all things we have love, we have charity. 1 Corinthians 13:2 "If I hold in my mind, not only all human knowledge but also the very secrets of God and if I have the faith that can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all." You can be so theologically correct, and you can have all the things worked out in Revelation about who the beast is and who the red horse is and what the bowl judgements are and what the trumpet is and when this happens. And you can have Daniel figured out to the nth degree, but if you are not a loving person, who cares? It doesn't matter!
The bottom line is we have unity in the things that matter, that we allow each other liberty in the things that aren't as important, and above everything else we relate to each other in a loving way.
You're going to run into some people here at COV you don't like. You're going to run into some people that may hurt your feelings either intentionally or unintentionally. You may find some people who take credit for an idea that was yours. You may find you don't get credit for something you did that you worked so hard on and it hurts you. You may find some people who are obnoxious. Why? Because this is a church made up of people just like you. Imperfect, sinners, saved by the grace of God, who make mistakes. You have to make a decision, if you're going to join this church, that you will have a loving heart toward those you meet and that you would be willing to do work of reconciliation and forgiveness if it's ever needed. You're going to need it! You're going to need to learn to forgive and you're going to have to be willing to do that if you're going to join here. We don't want people to join this church who aren't willing to go through that process. If you decide to join, you come with an attitude that says "If I run into trouble, when I run into trouble, when I run into difficulties, when I run into situations, I promise before God to do what the Bible says and that is to work through with a loving heart to reconciliation and forgiveness."
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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