United in His Service

"Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing." — 1 Timothy 2:8

Paul, in 1 Timothy, offers a beautiful vision for what the church should be. In the verse cited above, he talks about coming together, letting go of anger and disputes, and coming together in holy worship and prayer. It's a beautiful, Biblical vision for the church — one we don't see that often.

In our time, the church has taken on a different form. What divides us is infinitely more public than what unites us, and some would argue we should let all that go and follow the Biblical model. While I'm all for following the Biblical model, I'm not sure some of what divides us can just be set aside.

But that doesn't mean we can't focus on prayer and worship. The modern church has real, serious issues that have led to division. I'm not talking about the style of music, the style of choir robe, or the style of service. Those are minor issues that can easily be swept aside. But when the basic tenants of the Bible are being ignored, you have to stand up and say no. When there are mainline denominations that basically support all manner of lifestyle choice in direct contradiction to the Scriptures, that can't be ignored. When mainline Evangelicals stand up and affirm the faith traditions of cults, that can't be ignored. When mainline Evangelicals stand up and say there is no eternal consequence for a life of sin, that can't be ignored. And those things can't be supported and swept aside.

What divides us is real, important, and critical to our faith. But it doesn't have to define our journey. We don't have to spend our time negatively focused on those divisions and doing something about those divisions, we need to just move on and move forward with the business of the church — spreading the Gospel, modeling our Biblical values in our words and deeds and, as Paul noted, lifting our hands in praise and prayer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.