There are many absolutes in the Bible. Such as Jesus is the Son of God, sent to earth to be the sin sacrifice for mankind; we cannot have a relationship with God the Father unless we have received Christ the Son; we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourself. Those are “non-negotiables,” so to speak. But there are other issues that aren’t so cut and dried, and sometimes we Christians can get far too focused on things that really have no impact on salvation. We’ve all heard about churches that have split over petty things like what color of carpet to put in the sanctuary. Christians sometimes quarrel over what kind of clothes to wear, whether or not to drink coffee/wine, should we go to movies… We can get so caught up in these differences we forget one of the non-negotionables: Love your neighbor as yourself. The longer we walk with the Lord, the more in tune we should become with Him. This “being in tune” should grow within us an ability to love weaker (meaning less mature in the faith) brothers and sisters and spend our “worry,” for lack of a better word, on what matters: sharing His love and reflecting His light.

Sometimes The Message translation really reaches me. From Romans 14, “It’s God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between—not each other. That’s why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.”

Petty tyrannies… Arguing and criticism never builds relationships, and it certainly doesn’t inspire non-Christians to be part of the family of God. Above all of the characteristics of God, let’s put on love.