Friday, February 1, 2008

One?

In my quiet time this morning I came across something really interesting. We teach all the time that disunity is a sin. I still believe that, but this passage struck me:

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, [a] they found a plain in Shinar [b] and settled there.

 3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel [c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Genesis 11

Wow, it was their pride that caused God to bring disunity.

I started thinking about the church and wondered if the reason we have so much disunity (in the local church and in the whole body of Christ) is because of the pride of the leaders. My thinking has now changed. Of couse it is.

We as shepherds must fall on our face and confess Psalm 51.

The world wil know when we have unity. John 17:23

Just something to chew on…

2 comments:

Josh Bedwell said...

I have been moved to comment on this blog. I have found something to be very peculiar about pride and sin. They both are spelled with the letter i right in the middle (by no coincidence I am sure).

The word pride dates back to even the first sin! One might begin to think seperation from God begins with pride and the reconnection begins when pride is shattered by humility.

Brian Brown said...

Thnaks Josh, great insight!