AS we come to this next practical exhortation from the apostle Paul, let us remember that again this is a further explanation of sincere love which Paul calls us to in verse 9 at the commencement of this practical instruction. Here is another way sincere love is expressed. Again we need to resist the temptation to hurry over this verse, but rather stop and prayerfully seek the Lord to teach us what is being urged upon us here.

THE ACTION URGED UPON US.

In the first place we need to ask ourself what it means to live in harmony. In the doing of this we will find it helpful to think in a musical sense. Those who have appreciation of music know how important harmony is in a musical composition. Harmony brings joy and satisfaction. Harmony makes the music pleasing to the ear, and we experience a sense of delight. However when a wrong note is played, or a wrong chord, then this jars upon our ears, and leaves a sense of pain and offence.

When there is harmony in the fellowship of the church, then there is a sense of joy and well-being. The fellowship is filled with the joy of the Lord. The work of God goes forward smoothly and progress is visible. People grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. There is a oneness of faith and action, and all the fellowship feel they belong and are affirmed. If there is some discord, from whatever reason, then joy and well-being diminishes, and a sense of disquiet pervades the work of God. People become afraid, and openness between church members is stopped. People become afraid and progress, if it remains, is nervous and faltering. The devil is always active to bring disharmony into the fellowship of God's people, because he knows that where there is discord sin can creep into the church, and the witness of the church is impaired. I guess that all of us have heard of a church fellowship torn apart by the discord of offending opinions, and the result of this seen in Christ dishonoured and the fellowship left unhappy.

In seeking to understand the meaning of any part of Scripture, it is good to seek to understand, where possible, the meaning in the original language, whether Greek for the New Testament or Hebrew for the Old Testament. Here the Greek word used has the sense of thinking and understanding, and so the idea which is expressed by the word harmony used in the New International Translation of the Bible has the idea of having the same mind or agreement in thinking and understanding. What is certainly true is that discord in the fellowship of the church is often associated with opinions being expressed with strength that is unjustified. We shall come to this issue later in this sermon under the heading of what promotes harmony, but for the moment let us take to heart how careful we must be in our thinking, and the importance of having our minds and thinking formed by a humble submission to the known word and will of God, by a careful action of informing the mind by dwelling in the Scriptures, and seeking in all things to have the mind of Christ.

THE CAUSES OF DISCORD.

If all the members of the church fellowship are humble under the mighty hand of God, and in submission to the Scriptures; and if all members of the fellowship dwell much in the Scriptures so that our thinking and understanding is moulded by the word of God, then discord is less likely to find its way into the church. However Paul lays his finger pointedly upon the heart of discord in a church fellowship. The cause of discord in the church can most often be traced to pride and conceit.

Paul tells us that we must not be proud or conceited. He then lays his finger of one demonstration of pride, and that is the pride of thinking we are somewhat better than others. Paul talks about being ready to associate with people of low position. In the context this seems to have the idea of being willing to be humble enough to accept the menial tasks in the fellowship, and associate and accept fellowship with people from a lower structure of society than our own. This may be a pride found in a person because they have been privileged to have been born in the higher structures of society, or it may be a pride or conceit that imagines one is better than another because of intelligence or skill or understanding. Either way, such pride causes disharmony.

THAT WHICH PROMOTES HARMONY.

Having look as carefully as we can at the text, we need now to search out that which will promote harmony in the fellowship. So in the first place we need to appreciate how important it is that harmony should be the characteristic of the fellowship we belong to and be certain that we are not the cause of any disharmony.

What Paul is doing here in these practical instructions for holy and Christlike living is applying the Gospel he has spent the whole of his epistle in expounding up to chapter 11. As soon as we realise this, we begin to see how harmony is promoted in the church. If all people lived out the gospel and the salvation they have received in Christ, then harmony would be the result. The fact is that the flesh wars against the Spirit, and the devil is active in exciting the flesh in us, and this causes people to fall out with each other. So what is the way forward?

The way forward always commences with each individual church member. We must take it for granted that Paul is speaking to those who are true believers, because these people constitute the church of Christ. However there will be always people in a fellowship who are not yet converted, and if they are the cause of discord, then the answer in them is for them to come to a saving faith in Christ.

For those of us who know Christ as Saviour, the promotion of harmony in the church is found at its roots in our remembrance of the the truth about us. We are sinners saved by grace. Whatever gifts and skills we may have we are still sinners saved by grace. We have nothing to be proud about, for we owe everything to Christ, and our continuing in salvation and our growing in grace is dependent completely on Christ's grace and blessing. In such remembrance there is no room for pride and conceit, for our standing before God is by grace, and what skills we may possess are gifts from God which we can claim no merit. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that the Holy Spirit gives gifts for the well-being of the church according to his sovereign will. If we have been given gifts that can be said to place us up front, then we need to appreciate two things. The first is that the gift or gifts we have are from God and because he is gracious, and that we hold them simply in trust. We must not seek glory for ourselves because we possess them. The second thing we need to appreciate is that the more prominent gifts are no greater in the mind of Christ than the supposedly lesser gifts. All are equally needed, and are important equally to maintain the health and well being of the fellowship. That is produce harmony in the body.

The next thing we need to appreciate and live by is that God has given us gifts however humble they may seem, and they are the gifts we are called to exercise. We must not seek other gifts just because they may appear to us to be better or more desirable. If we do, all that will result, is discord, both in our life, and in the life of the fellowship to which we belong. We need to realise that before God the role he has given us to do for Christ is just as useful and important and necessary as any other. If people seem to be looking down on others because their position in the church is thought to be more lowly, then such attitude needs to be purged.

Then within the church, though there is inequality in society, and some are thought more excellent than others, within the church there is no class separating one from another. In the eyes of God all are equal; all are equally loved; all are equally valued. This truth is expressed by Paul in our text as he speaks against pride.

In this respect every member has a right to be valued, and their thinking and opinions taken seriously, however one very prominent cause of disharmony in the fellowship of Christ is when one member presses their opinions against all others, and will not humbly submit to the majority. It is hard when we feel we have a point that is important, or we perceive some flaw in the fellowship which is real, to have our thought or opinion ignored or rejected. The way forward is not to press our point with aggression. We must speak, and the church should allow this, but if our opinion is rejected, we need then to wait upon God, and pray that his will may be done. The truth is that often there are many ways something can be done, and our way, however good, may not be any better than another way.

Jeremiah in chapter 45 and verse 5 says, “Do you seek great things for yourself; seek them not”. Jesus told the parable of an invitation to a banquet. He then goes on to say to us not to seek the highest place, because then the master of the feast may come and say to us that we must give up our place for someone else, and then we will be humiliated and have to take the only place left which is the lowest. Jesus then says, when you are invited take the lowest place; then the master of the feast will come and say come up higher, and we shall have joy before the whole company. The teaching here is that we should always be ready to humbly be of no importance in the fellowship, and leave ourselves in the the hand of God, then we shall find God exalting the humble in his good time.

So far we have been looking at the problem of harmony and discord in the realm of relationships and duties within the fellowship. There is another aspect of church life which is crucial to this whole subject, and that is the aspect of belief. Harmony is promoted best of all when there is unity and harmony in belief. These days unity in the church, which is analogous to harmony, is pressed on churches regardless of belief, and the argument is that when belief is pressed then disharmony follows. Christ did not teach this. When he prayed that his people should be one in John 17, the oneness, the harmony, was the same as existed between him and the Father. This was oneness in thought and purpose. So for Christians to be in harmony they must be one in belief concerning the truth.