The Law of Love in the Church

The Christian church on earth is never a showcase of perfect people, but more like a hospital of recovering sinners, who are to assist each other in this journey of recovery. True believers in Jesus Christ come from many different backgrounds, cultures, and ways of life, with various life stories, and have different personalities, and different levels of faith. These differences can create tension and disharmony in the church, but the Lord has given very clear and extensive directions on dealing with these issues. This is the subject of this series of lectures, with a focus on the Scriptures from Romans 14 and 15.

  This lecture presents three principles regarding divisions in the body of Christ, which Paul the Apostle warns about in Romans 14 and 15. The first principle is that believers all over the world differ in their understanding of unessential matters of faith and practice. The second principle is that focusing on these minor, unessential matters can cause grief and damage to the conscience of fellow believers. The third principle is the importance of focusing on the major truths of the gospel, which are the Scriptural truths that bind us together as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The challenge is how to dwell in unity, how to bear and forebear each other in the spirit of meekness and love, when we deal with matters that are unessential.

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Rev. A.T. Vergunst is minister of the Gospel in the Reformed Congregation of Carterton, New Zealand.