I love you even if the title is different.
Contents
Acts 13:1-3 We love you even if we are different.
“The two of us have very different personalities. If the car has about half oil left, I don't need to spend more money, so I fill it up in advance and live comfortably with an abundant heart. However, my wife said that it is enough to fill it up after running out of oil, and why is it that I am so nauseous? The last time I came to church, I said that I was worried about running out of oil, and my wife said enough was enough to go back and forth between the churches, and then we quarreled."
And then he said this. “Yesterday I drove my wife and I on the highway for three hours. During those three hours, I had a thought that I did not leave even a second. I wanted to kill myself by turning the car in a moment while driving 150 km. I've been through time. I'm so different from my wife. I think I've slept with the enemy for 35 years."
As you listen to this story, you learn a big reason why many couples today get divorced. It's just a personality difference. Like the aforementioned couple, it is impossible for a couple to live because they have different ideas, different personalities, and different values. But think about it. No one in this world is alike. In other words, if the couple divorced because they were different, there would be no couple in this world who would not divorce. In other words, it is a matter of whether the other person hates and kills because he is different from me, or whether he likes and loves him because he is different from me.
After the explosion of the Twin Towers of the Trade Center in the United States a few years ago, there were two best-selling books in the world. One is the book ‘Clash of Civilizations’ by Samuel Huntington. The content of this book is that different civilizations inevitably collide with each other. So, because Arabs and Americans are different, Muslims and Christians are different, they speak different languages, they have different cultures, and they think differently, so there was a conflict.
But another book that sold well was Harold Miller's book, The Coexistence of Civilizations. No matter how different, people must find a common denominator and find ways to live together, and civilizations must coexist. Which view do you think is correct? Are different civilizations clashing? Are you trying to become one because your civilizations are different? Do I have to kill him because he is different from me? Or can you love even if that person is different from me? Should I get a divorce because my wife is different from me? Or can we love even if we are different? The answer can be found in today's text.
According to today's text, the members of the Antioch church are all made up of different people. However, they did not fight because they were different, but rather, it is a surprisingly united church. ① Nobility and commoners became one. Manaen is the king's younger brother. But Simeon is a slave. A nobleman and a slave, the brother of the king, were united in one church. ② Jews and Gentiles became one. Saul and Manaen are Jews, Simeon, Barnabas, and Lucio are Gentiles. Where blood is completely different, they have become one
③ Black and white became one. Simeon is niger, or black. Black people joined the white church and became one. ④ The ignorant and the learned became one. Saul received his Ph.D. But Simeon didn't even go to elementary school. But they became one. ⑤ The rich and the poor became one. Manaen is a chaebol. Simeon is a penniless servant. But they became one.
⑥ The believer and the new believer have become one. Barnabas had been a believer in Jesus for a long time. Saul was a new believer who soon accepted Jesus. But the two became one. ⑦ Those who have mystical beliefs and those with rational beliefs have become one. Agabus was a man of mystic faith who prophesied and spoke in tongues when he was filled with the Holy Spirit. But Barnabas was a man of rational and cold faith. But they became one.
As such, there are no people in the church in Antioch, but everyone became one. Folks, civilizations do not collide, but coexist. In other words, we can love each other even if we are different. Rather, it could be better to be different. Think about it. Which one looks better: a flower garden with only one flower or a flower garden with all kinds of other flowers in harmony?
Ladies and gentlemen, couples can love each other even if they are different. Church members can love each other even if they are different. Even though the peoples are different, we can still love each other. Even though they have different skin colors, they can still love each other. Religions are different, but we can love each other. You can still love even if your ancestors are different. Even if you think differently, you can still love. So, how can we love each other?
1. We can love if we have the same purpose.
The secret that the Church of Antioch was able to become one despite its diverse composition is the fact that it had one purpose. The Antioch Church was the first church to send missionaries in the history of mankind. The members of Antioch were a church united for the purpose of loving the church, saving souls, pleasing the Lord, and glorifying God. The purpose is the same, there is no need to fight. All you have to do is do it together.
Of course, even if the goal is the same, there is a possibility of fighting because the order, procedure, method, and opinion of achieving the goal are different. For example, when doing missionary work, some people say that you have to do alms first. Such a person says that when establishing an orphanage and a nursing home, missionary expenses must be paid first. However, some say that it is not missionary in the true sense, so we must first build a church building, worship God, and do evangelism.
Conflicts of opinion on these methodologies can be fully resolved through dialogue, yielding, obedience, and prayer. At least we who believe in Jesus have the same purpose - to glorify God. As long as these goals are the same, we can overcome differences in methodologies and become one and love each other.
2. If you know God's laws of creation, you can love.
When God created the world, He created everything differently. He made various creatures under the earth, various animals on the earth, and birds flying in the air. And he made different kinds of the same kind. There are hundreds of thousands of parrots, hundreds of thousands of snakes, hundreds of thousands of orchids, and hundreds of thousands of chrysanthemums. So are people. Even black people who say they have black faces look the same at first glance, but in reality they are not. Among them, there are people who are really black, and there are people who are whiter than Asians.
Gentlemen, God did not cut man with a machine, he made it with his hands. That is, each person has a different face, a different personality, and a different constitution. No two people are alike in this world. In other words, God's law of creation is that different people gather and live together. If we say we have to live together, black and white must kill each other, educated and uneducated must kill each other, and ugly and handsome must also kill each other. If that happens, humanity will be destroyed. This is against God's laws of creation.
God's laws of creation are different from you and me. It is normal to have different opinions during a meeting. If it's the same, there's no need for a meeting. Even if there is a different opinion, it must be acknowledged that “it is natural to be different.” Even if the couple is different, they must admit, “Yes, it is natural that they are different.” If we know God's laws of creation in this way, we can love each other.
3. If you put Jesus in the middle, you can love.
There are things that serve to attach different objects. Glue, bond, glue. Jesus is the super glue that holds different people together. Where Jesus enters, the enemy becomes a friend. The two become one. The barriers are broken down. So the Bible says:
“Now you, who were formerly afar off, have been drawn near by the blood of Christ in Christ Jesus. He is our peace. By making the two one, he broke down the middle wall, and abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is, the ceremonial law of commandments, who made of the two one new man in himself, and made peace, and made them two by the cross. that the body might be reconciled to God. He destroyed enmity on the cross, and came to bring peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near, so that through him we both may have access to the Father in one Spirit” (Ephesians 2:13-) 18)
There is a secret that the members of the Antioch Church were able to love each other and become one despite being so heterogeneous. It was because they had the same purpose and believed in Jesus well. There are many people who say that even if a couple tries to get a divorce because they have different personalities in their lives, they cannot get a divorce because of the children they love. So some husbands deliberately have children in order not to divorce their wives.
If we also have Jesus whom we love, we can love our enemies by looking at the face of Jesus. When a hateful person puts Jesus in it and looks at it, that person looks pretty and pitiful. But if I look at the person I hate with my feelings, my personality, my thoughts, my wounds
It might even get worse. In the end, you can't live either for yourself or for others. Therefore, we need to put the person of Jesus in the middle, and put the thoughts of Jesus and the love of Jesus into it.
Conclusion. We can love even if we are different. No matter what, we must love each other. Only then can coexistence and coexistence be possible. To do so, 1. The purpose must be the same. 2. You must know God's laws of creation. 3. You must put Jesus in the middle. Immigrant societies and immigrant churches can be very different from each other. Nevertheless, we must love each other.