declare The Lewis Family. Campus Outreach Thailand

Humility:True Greatness-9 (speech & unity)

In reading the book Humility I have seen that humility can lead to unity.

"Did you know that, on average, each of us speaks about twenty-five thousand words daily?...a lot of language is flowing out of our mouths every day and having an impact on those around us. But how much of that flow is fulfilling God's intended purpose for our speech? How much of it reflects pride, rather than a gospel-motivated humility?"

Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21)

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (Ephesians 4:29)

"It's the nature of such corrupt words to penetrate and to spread, and they "grieve the Holy Spirit of God" Ephesians (4:30). Therefore, no talk of this kind is allowed. Among believers and their families in the church of Jesus Christ, there's to be no decay-spreading communication of any kind, in any form, at any time, by anyone."

I believe that God gives believers many opportunities to display his love in the form of unity. Unity among believers in all of life gets overlooked and less attention than it should. We hear much about it before we go on mission trip for a week or two or the summer and when we try to make teenagers do what we do not do ourselves....hang out with those other believers that are not like us, but do we understand unity? Do we just want less conflict or do we desire to see the "body of Christ grow and build itself up in love?" These are not the same ends. Peace among believers does not mean that we are not fighting out loud. It means that we are so cool with one another that we actually love each other and build each other up with words and service. In my life I have seen much disunity and have been part of the problem, I am not the greatest peacemaker. But when I see my folly I normally seek to make amends with those I have wronged and caused friction in the body. After that I must choose to love and trust God to help the offended forgive and choose to love me. The reason I am writting this is because disunity among believers is in our faces every where we turn. Now, I am not saying that eveyone is the problem, but it only takes a few of us to cause ripples among the rest of us to cause junk. This is something that has been on my mind many times over the course of about 11 years. I would say that most of my Christian life up until college was pretty uneventful when it came to Christians having conflict with one another in a crippling way. I have seen believer conflict in the Church in Thailand, Turkey, Cuba and the USA with my own heart and know that biblical resolutions always end with joy and stronger bonds. We will have problems with one another, but let us be above reproach, let us be honest, let us always give the benefit of the doubt to each other, let's put one another first! We do not have to agree, but we do have to love and let our words be gospel filled.

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! Psalm 133:1

"I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.....

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds [2] and teachers, [3] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, [4] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,

when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."

Ephesians 4:1-6, 11-16