Living in Harmony

Harmony is the opposite of unison.  It appears to me that the church world has mistaken unison for unity, but Christianity produces unity through harmony.  Harmony is a combination of different sounds that blend together to create beautiful, moving music. 

The message to the church at Corinth begins with this challenge and then spends the remaining chapters dealing with the fruits of disharmony and selfishness.  Without this underlying foundation, all attempts at addressing issues and problems become futile. 

God describes “living in harmony” as being of one mind, united in thought and purpose.  These three foundations allow the church to stay on course during the storms of life and the challenges of opposing voices. (see 1 Corinthians 1:10)

One mind . . . Philippians 2:1-8 describes the attitude or mindset we need to have in order to harmonize our diversity into the beautiful music God designed the church to make.  We are to be unselfish (not seeking a solo part) and be humble (acknowledging the value of the other instruments in the orchestra).  Jesus was entitled to everything because He was God, but He surrendered everything in order to do what He was sent to do.  His mind, motive and heart-of-hearts was not to manipulate life for His own comfort or advantage, but to surrender His life to God’s purpose and the advantage of others.  What is your motive for doing what you do?

United in thought . . . Philippians 4:4-9 challenges us to be intentional in what we think about.  There is plenty of negative stuff, uncertain stuff and potential peril to dwell on or worry about.  The marketplace, including the news media, feeds on this tendency to see the glass half empty.  God says to vent to Him (read pray) and be thankful He is on our side.  Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.  “Fix” means to consider, count on and focus on.  It means to buy into God’s view of things rather than the world’s view.

United in purpose . . . Philippians 3:7-14 describes how we are to set all things aside in the pursuit of Christ and the journey He has planned for us.  Christ had one purpose. (see Luke 19:10)  He empowered us for one purpose. (see Acts 1:8) And He gave the church one assignment. (see Matthew 28:18-20) All the other benefits of being born again are to be attractions to that one purpose.

The church is a collection of diverse people who are humbly laying aside their personal preferences and focusing on God’s powerful, positive work in a fallen world in order to present the good news of the life-giving, life-changing opportunity found in Christ.

First Corinthians chapter one ends with these words:  “God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.  Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD.”

This may very well determine the difference between Churchianity (unison) and Christianity (harmony).  May the world be attracted to Christ through the harmony He creates in His church.  What kind of music is your church making?  We get more concerned about the style of music on the platform than the kind of music we are making as a church body.  That's a subject for another blog.