Christians should make every effort to bear with one another in love in order to hold the unity of the body of Christ, the Chairman of The Church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, has advised.
Referring to Ephesians 4, Apostle Nyamekye outlined some qualities and attributes required of believers in managing and containing each other in the family of God.
According to him, since the body of Christ (the Church) is made up of people with different background and training, certainly, there will be some kind of behaviours that need to be tolerated and accommodated just to keep the unity of the Spirit when such attitudes do not breach the basics of the Gospel.
“If what we do, say, eat, like, wear does not contravene the fundamentals of the Gospel, then we must try to bear with one another,” he said.
Apostle Nyamekye said this in a sermon he preached to conclude his teachings on November 22, 2020, during the Special Sunday Evening Service on PENT TV.
Reading from Acts 15:19-21 and Romans 14:1-6, 13-17, the Chairman explained that bearing with one another is making concessions for the weak. This, according to him, will make it easier to break bread together as the custom of the early church was.
“For the unity of the body, we need to endeavour to hold the church together. Sometimes we need to make a concession when it doesn’t go against the core message of the Gospel so we can accommodate our brothers,” he reiterated.
He, however, cautioned Christians against overbearing in their bid to make concessions as the effort of every member of the body of Christ is required in holding the church together.
Apostle Nyamekye pointed out that Christ has made some provisions in the heart of believers to be able to accommodate one another (Romans 5:5).
“So apart from the work on the cross; apart from the prayer He prayed before He went on the cross; apart from intercessory prayer that He is constantly making for us and what the Elders do by helping us unite by giving us good teachings, in every believer’s heart Christ has poured the love of God,” he said, adding, “So when we want to operate, let’s operate from that perspective that there is the love of God in our heart that is able to accommodate one another’s failing and weakness.”
Explaining what to do to help one another in the body of Christ, Apostle Eric Nyamekye charged Christians to see value in one another by recognising the graces upon one another (Ephesians 4:7), honour one another (Romans 12:10), share each other’s burden (Galatians 6:2), encourage one another (Hebrews 3:12-13), exhort, teach and admonish one another (Ephesians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:16).
“As members of the body of Christ, we must love one another (John 13:30), serve one another (John 13:11), support one another (Acts 2:45), pray for one another (2 Thessalonians 2:5), spur one another on (Colossians 4:17), rejoice with one another and mourn with one another (Romans 12:15), and be everything for another,” he added.
“We are of the same family and we need to unite and fight the devil and make the kingdoms of the world become the Kingdom of our God. There is a race that we must run; there are victories to be won.
“We need to try and sit at the Master’s table as brothers. Let us work hard at the unity of the Spirit; accomodating one another’s failing.
“Being gentle and patience; being very humble and living the life that we have been called to, the life of holiness, we will be able to forge the unity of the Spirit,” the Chairman concluded.
Report by Emmanuel Nana Nsiah.