A brother left his original church, let's say, church Z, to serve in an another gathering place. But then he was attacking his original church on the Internet, trying to stop the believers gathering there by claiming that it couldn't offer proper teaching and love. In fact, this brother's statements and actions are generally considered ridiculous, even irritating. But if you know that the reason why he left the original church in anger was that he had some conflicts with his fellow members, you probably would think that he is forgivable.
We must admit that there are conflicts happening inside churches and fellowships, which are damaging the harmony from within and as a main reason led to the loss of believers. So, what should we handle with this phenomenon?
Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) once said: "The church is holy, because the Lord gave grace as holiness church, and the church is not worthy." So the holiness of church is given by the Lord, instead of people inside church, for they are incomplete individuals. When a group of people with "problems" gather around, conflicts are almost unavoidable. In general, believers often argue about doctrines unrelated to principles, different ways to serve, or personalities, romantic relations (usually seen on youth fellowships), even beneficial conflicts. These are common reasons why serious collisions occur inside church members. It turned out damaging believers' spiritual growth and the healthy development of the church.
Priest Liu TingFang believes that "Even though we disagree, on God's love we agree". The disagreement mainly points at theological differences, but principles of love still apply in church conflicts. Christians may differ from location, profession, age, character, education level, and other things, but we come together for the same reason-the love and respect for our Lord, so we then become a family inside the Lord, and how should family not love each other? We know that love between sisters and brothers can witness God's grace (seen at Jhn:13:15). Besides, none of us is perfect, but all of us are fortunate enough to be loved and saved by Jesus. If we could think about how the Lord loves us and learn to love others like he does us, eventually we can appreciate our brothers and sisters and do right by them. When collision occurs, the damage might be reduced by following the principle of love and praying for God's advice first, containing our anger, then forgiving others and kindly admonishing them, even if others irritate us through words and actions.
Maybe you would say that dealing conflicts with love is right, but should "principle" follow behind it? The idea behind this question is invalid, because it suggests that the opposition between love and principle is there and easy to become tricky. But the opposition doesn't exist in the first place, and on the contrary, unity does. Forgiving doesn't equal indulging, and true love is rooted on justice. Confucius once said:" Soft men (XiangYuan) without principles are the thieves of virtues." Apostle Paul believes that "It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth." (1Co:13:6) The lord is justice, and hates the wrongdoings, so how should we act out or agree with the wrongdoings? If we lose our standing for the truth of Christ, the principle of justice, and fool around without clearing out right and wrong, or lean into the famous, the rich, the close ones, then not only the wrongdoers won't learn about their mistakes, but go further and further in wrong.
And treating people unfairly could turn up the heat of bad feelings and worsen conflicts. Although some people might hold grudge for being accused by the truth, we can't give up principles, instead, we should pray for them, and help them turn around through kindness and wisdom. Believe that the Lord will bring them back to truth.
Conflicts inside church are impossible to avoid, but if we can follow the truth of the Lord with a loving heart, then collisions would stay away from church and fellowship, bringing out a more harmonic God-given environment for all the sisters and brothers.
(The writer is a Christian from GuLangYu, XiaMen province. )
