Augustine once said “Remember, we are washed in the same blood.” Doesn’t that comment just make you think? Doesn’t it just highlight to you how we are all part of one family. ALL believers in Christ have been cleansed by the same blood, the blood of Christ. We are all part therefore of one big family. It’s good that eh?
Sometimes, oh sometimes, we are so caught up in being doctrinally correct that we lose sight of the fact that we are family, and forget to treat each other like it.
We need to love each other like family. And just like families do, we can call each other out when we act inappropriately, or have faulty thinking, but we do so from the vantage point of love. We don’t want our loved one going places, or thinking places, or acting in ways that aren’t suitable.
So when we talk with other believers, even if their faith is divergent from our own (for instance believers baptism vs covenant baptism), we don’t have to act like, or treat them like they are horrible for having a different standard. The question always comes down to this… do these other believers love God, do they see that Christ’s death is the only answer to the sin in our lives, do they embrace God’s word as God’s word and believe in it wholly? If they do, they are brothers and sisters in Christ, they are family. Shouldn’t we treat them as such?
These are my people; we have been washed in the same blood, sanctified by the same Spirit, and loved by the same Father. (Ian Hamilton, The faith-shaped life) Click To Tweet
Doesn’t mean it’s easy, in fact loving family can be downright messy, but let love be the first guide. Let love draw us into unity with each other instead of letting our differences drive us apart.
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