Christians are good at falling out. Sometimes this is just because we're human – someone rubs us up the wrong way, we're in a bad mood or we are not in a cooperative or forgiving mood. Sometimes it's because there are really important issues at stake – or issues that seem really important at the time. It might be about doctrine or about other issues of church life, but we're prepared to think and say things about fellow-Christians that, looking back, don't really do us much credit.
The Bible is clear about the importance of truth, but it's clear about the importance of unity and peace, too. It condemns division and quarrelsomeness and praises unity and kindness. Here are nine Bible verses that remind us how important it is to live in peace and harmony together.
1. How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity! (Psalm 133:1).
2. An unfriendly person pursues selfish ends and against all sound judgment starts quarrels (Proverbs 18:1).
3. As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife (Proverbs 26:21).
4. Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division (Luke 12:51).
5. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity (John 17: 22-23).
6. I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them (Romans 16:17).
7. I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought (1 Corinthians 1:10).
8.Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels (2 Timothy 2:23).
9. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? (James 4:1).
