The following is a mobile post, meaning it may have typos, incomplete thoughts, it may not even make any sense – enjoy!
The inspiration for this, this morning is John 17 (the whole chapter) – Jesus' heart was and is for unity between believer, and if you read the rest of the Gospels you'll find that thread of truth for interacting with all people.
So if there is one thing that comes to my mind over and over, when concerning the Church, it's what Christians say and do. Often I read or hear Christians saying simply mean things about others, weather it's some snarky remark about a politician, or complaining about a pastor, and everything in between. While I know Jesus certainly criticized the religious leaders in his day, he was also God, we are not, and I don't believe the apostles went around (in a mean and critical spirit) poking at the Christian leaders in the early Church (nor really the government).
The thing is, we will fail at this, we'll slip up and koin our co-workers in this stuff, we'll get into our little Christian ghetto huddles and mock people. We lean on his grace in these situations, and the funny thing is that most of the people outside the Church have far more grace for these slip ups than us in the Church.
So we need to have an attitude of change, to apoligize, and to seek God's heart for all. Of course we have the right to question, critique, and correct – within the bounds of a loving heart.
