Thursday, June 29, 2017

Divided and Conquered

But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent.

—Acts 6:1

I find it interesting that in the days of the early church when many were being saved, when miracles were being performed, and when the church was growing by leaps and bounds, people started complaining. Acts 6:1 tells us, “But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent.”

Doesn’t that sound like today? You see, the devil is rather clever. He tried to stop the church through persecution. But instead of arresting their development, he helped them get on with the job of being what the Lord had called them to be. The church, instead of cowering in fear, became a lean, mean, preaching machine.

Then he tried to infiltrate the church through Ananias and Sapphira, two blatant hypocrites, and the Lord dealt with them. His next strategy was to try and stop the church through division—to divide and conquer. He slipped into their ranks, and people started complaining about the smallest things. It wasn’t really a spiritual issue; it essentially was a clash over culture.

And we still have that today. Every generation has the musical style they prefer. They have the clothing they prefer. They have certain cultural mores they think are important. Sometimes they are built on a biblical concept, and at other times they are simply a personal preference. But we should never divide over these things.

It’s okay to have personal preferences. It’s okay to like one thing over another. But it is wrong when we divide from a fellow Christian over something of that nature.

People will leave churches over the silliest things. They don’t like this change or don’t agree with that. They get hung up on the smallest issues. Maybe the problem isn’t so much with the church as it is with people. Let’s not divide over minor issues.