In the past few weeks a lot of Protestants have been up in arms about what the Pope said about other denominations. Frankly, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.

The Roman Catholic Church has been saying that their church is the only true church since the beginning. In fact, up until the reformation, the Roman catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church were really the only two ‘Christian” churches in the world. Then came the reformation, which caused a wide variety of divisions and splits among Christianity all of which claimed that they were right.

Yet, even before that, yes since the beginning of the Christian church, there have been divisions and disagreements. Acts and the Epistles are full of accounts of disagreements between Judaizers and those who would not have Christians follow the Jewish way of thinking. There were disagreements about the Lord’s Supper, about Baptism, as well as many other things.

To think that we all can agree on everything is ludicrous. We will never agree on everything on this side of heaven. We will never come to an agreement about how we should baptize, when we should baptize, or even what baptism does for us. We will never agree on whether the whole Bible is true or just parts of it. In connection with that, we will never agree on how to interpret Scripture either. We are so close and yet so far apart.

Now, I am not saying that this is all right. I wish for and long for the day when we can all agree on every matter of faith. It would be the most awesome thing in the world if we could all come together as one in theology and in practice. Still, as long as there are human beings in these church and a part of these churches, I am afraid that this will not happen.

Even within our own church bodies, from Lutherans, to Roman Catholics, to Presbyterians, to Methodists there are constant struggles and disagreements. The LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) of which I am a member, just had a convention. Not one of the motions that were voted on received a 100% vote. While this may seem like a terrible thing, it really isn’t. It just shows that we all come from different places and times, have different views on things, and will never agree on everything. I’m not saying that it is good that we can’t ever agree or that it is ideal, but it is just the way it is among sinful human beings.

This shows another reason for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as Savior of the world. If we were all perfect, which we aren’t, we would all agree on everything, because we would all have the same mind, the mind of Almighty God. Since none of us is perfect, and since we are all fallible human beings, we will always disagree.

At the same time, getting back to the beginning point, we do have different belief systems based on our best understanding of things. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod bases its beliefs solely on the Scriptures as they have been set out for us in the 66 books of the Old and New Testament. We also believe that Scripture interprets Scripture, which means that if we don’t understand something in Scripture the only way to figure it out is to read the rest of Scripture to come up with the answer.

The Roman Catholic Church has as its authority the Scriptures and church tradition which includes an infallible Pope. In other words, if they don’t understand Scripture they go to the Pope for the answers.

They believe they’re right. We believe we’re right. And you believe you’re right. If this weren’t the case we wouldn’t need all of these different churches now would we? We would all be one big happy Christian church.

While we long for this and continue to work toward this, the likelihood of this happening is very slim on this side of paradise. Therefore we eagerly await our full adoption as true sons and daughters of the king into our heavenly inheritance that is heaven where there will be no more divisions, wars, famine, plague, or any other consequence of sin. Come quickly Lord Jesus! Come quickly!! Amen!

Over my six years of being a pastor there have been a few things that I have learned. One of the most important things that I have learned is that the Gospel is a much better motivator than the law is. It is much easier to catch flies with honey.

What I mean by this is that, if you want to conform someone to the will of God and have it be for the right purposes, you have to persuade them with the love of Christ that flows through your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This can be applied to just about any and every situation in life. If you want your spouse to be kind to you, to respect you, and to show love to you, treat her with kindness, love, and the peace of the Lord. If you treat her with contempt, with scorn, or as someone to just be there for your every whim, you won’t get very far.

It can be applied to your kids as well. I learned this with my daughter Cara. If I start to yell at her when she isn’t doing what I want her to do, she immediately shuts down and goes into crying mode, or she is rebellious to the point of sitting down on the ground and pouting. At the same time, if I treat her with respect, if I tell her why it would be good for her to do what she is told, and if I show her the love of Christ as I am telling her, she will gladly do it most of the time and we will both be pleased.

This also works very well in talking with others about Christ in so many various forms. You can either go up to someone and accuse them of their sin by calling them a sinner, or you can show them that you are sinner too, that both of you need a Savior, and that God sent his Son Jesus to save both of you by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.

This also works well in getting people who have strayed from worship and fellowship to come back to church. It doesn’t work to make them feel guilty and ashamed of not being there, that just drives them further away. It also doesn’t work to accuse them of their shortcomings over and over again. What does work is to share Christ with them, over and over again, letting them know how much you care for them, how much you want to have them back with you, and spending time with them, kind of like Christ did with “sinners” like the Samaritan woman, the tax collectors, and others.

Truth be told, I have had to learn most of these lessons the hard way. I have tried to guilt people into doing things. I have tried to yell my kids into submission. And I have tried to use the law to motivate people into doing what I want them to do. It just doesn’t work.

Not that I have achieved the ideal yet. I still get a little too forceful with my kids from time to time. I still bring out the guilt card with members of my church a little too often. And I still try to use the law to bring about results. Please forgive me God.

My point is that if we are to grow our churches, if we are to bring about love and peace in our families, if we want to heal broken relationships and make new ones, we need to do it with the fruits of the Spirit namely: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

At the same time, this isn’t something that we can necessarily “work” on. Instead these things come as a direct result of our growing understanding of God as he has made himself known to us through his word and sacraments. In other words, to change our habits, to change our attitudes, and to change our perspective we must rely on the one who changes us, namely the Holy Spirit.

This is what worship is for. In worship we confess our sinfulness and receive the forgiveness that our Lord Jesus won for us on the cross. You receive His Word through your ears as the pastor preaches the sermon, as you hear people read from God’s Word, and as you sing hymns that contain his word at every point.

This is what Bible study is for. In Bible study we learn all about God and who he is and how he deals with us, we also learn from him how we are to treat one another and grow with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is what daily devotions are for. In daily devotions are minds are turned from the every day worries of the world to the serenity and peace that can only be found in Christ. In prayer we have a conversation with our Lord God, and who better is there to talk to than him?

If we spend time daily in these things, and rightly learn from God’s Word we will definitely see a change in all of our relationships. We will also see a change in ourselves.

One thing I do wish though is that I would have learned these lessons a long time ago, that way I wouldn’t have messed up so many relationships and spent so much time trying to fix what I had messed up.

I encourage you all to learn from my mistakes. Live a life of love, not sappy all accepting love, but true Christian love that flows from a pure heart that has been cleansed by the blood of the lamb. God go with you as you grow in, by, and through him!