Philippians 4
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Paul wrote these words to the church at Philippi as a reminder that we are all in this together. There was some minor disagreement between a couple people about the best/correct way to move forward on an issue. This probably wasn’t some life or death decision that would determine the future of the church. Unfortunately, many people who have grown up in the church can think of times where these types of issues have caused a major rift.
And it is in conflicted times like this that we must remember that we are called to take the higher road—called to lay down our preferences for the sake of gospel unity. We all have ideas on how we think things should be, and we have to choose how we express those opinions. Do you do in such a way that that makes the body of Christ stronger? Or do you resort to demands, or temper-tantrums, or just being a general discouragement?
Being a Christian in our modern world is hard. We are surrounded by distractions, and obstacles, and people who don’t understand our faith. There is enough of that in the world, we don’t need more of the same in the church.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. And as you think on these things share them with your fellow Christian.
We are all in this together!