“If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him”
The Bible tells us that Christians have to get along with each other in a far more visible way than any other group of people gets along. Actually Americans hardly get along at all these days. We are not a melting pot any more where differences are subsumed into commonalities. Rather we’re more tribal than ever. Our differences become our identities and we fight for them. We’re told to tolerate, which basically means put up with the other guy who’s, in the view of the tolerater, wrong. Further the “tolerater” as he tolerates (endures the other’s wrongness????), will work to change the other guy so he melts to my demands. We’re more at war with each other than ever.
Jesus says Christians can’t be this way. If someone has hurt me I’ve got to care so much about this breech of relationship that I do the unthinkable and go and try to repair the breech. If that doesn’t work I’m supposed to try again!, this time with a neutral friend or two. If that doesn’t work, I’m suppose to try again, this time with a church leader or two. I’ve got to keep trying!
This is a question not of process or knowledge, rather it’s a question of will. Do you know anyone who does this? How about you? How important to you is getting this teaching of Jesus right?
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