I’ve been trying to think of a good way start this note, but I haven’t been able to come up with one, so I’m just going to dive into what I want to talk about in this note. The more I look at Christanity on the whole, and the more I read the Bible, the more I think that the different catagories (a.k.a. denomatinations) that we Christians put ourselves into is hurting the church and Christianity on the whole. I’m not saying that the idea of different denominations is not wrong, but I am saying that is it really the best thing? Looking back at history, there have been wars within Christianity because Christians have had disagreements about which denomination of Christianity (Catholicism or Protestantism) was the correct one and since that time of history, we have broken these two denominations down into many different denominations within themselves, most notably within Protestitantism, where we now have such denominations as Baptists, Methodists,and Wesleyans just to name a few. Looking at today’s society now, you see churches now that are splitting and you see Christians who are in disagreement and who argue with one another because their demoninations don’t interprete the meaning of a certain passage to be the same. In Colossians 3:12-17 it says ”12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” In this passage of scripture, we see that it talks about how we need to live as God’s chosen people (Verse 12 and 13). Also, we see that it says that the are members of one body (Verse 15). It doesn’t say that the are different bodies living together, but that we are one body. So how can we be one body and live how God wants us to if we are so focused on the differences between us because we belong to different denominations? The passage above also talks about how we need to do all things in the name of Lord Jesus (Verse 17). Is arguing with one another something we want to do in the name of Lord Jesus? I do not think that every Christian will have the same intepretation of the Bible, but I think we need to start focusing more on what the Bible says and on asking God to help us understand what He is trying to say, rather than going along with whatever particular denomination we’re a part of says it means. We are called to live in unity, because we are one body of believers in Christ Jesus.
