So too our commitment to unity is only really put to the test when something comes up that we have different and strong opinions about. One way to maintain unity would be to eject the minority who think differently. That would leave a very united congregation! But it would be the artificial unity of the cults, where everyone has to think the same on every issue. Gospel unity looks very different – that’s where we bear patiently with one another, love one another and strive to think the very best of one another.

Paul’s prayer for unity comes at the end of a long discussion dealing with exactly this kind of situation. He’s been dealing with serious tensions between two groups in the church. They were all Christians, but one group was mostly Gentiles who didn’t have any of the scruples the Jewish Christians in the church had about food laws or respecting Jewish holy days. Why should they? They never kept them in the past, and now Christ’s death meant they weren’t needed any longer. But Jewish Christians found it hard to reconcile themselves to eating food they’d been taught all their life was unclean. They knew they didn’t need to keep the Jewish feasts, but they always had and they loved them.

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