Is There a Battle Within the Church?

Anyone that has ever been part of the Church or has studied the Word of God knows for sure there are battles within the Church. In my lifetime I alone have seen infighting in the members, the Deacons, and even with the Pastor. Everyone trying to make sure their voice is the loudest, instead of being led by the Word of God. There is so much pride being flung around that the Word of God is not even being considered.

This is so heartbreaking, all Churches have a mixture of very mature Christians and much weaker brothers and sisters, there are many at all different levels of sanctification.

There are many mature Christians that want to step out of the trial within the Church with no thought that this is one of the battles that God has placed you in. There are many that will justify themselves getting out of that trial by making excuses about the people there, or how hard the trial is, or being in fear of the false brother or sister causing the problems. Fear of retribution, fear of people not liking you, fear of the future, whatever the fear, it is not the proper fear, which should be the fear of not doing what the Lord has told you to do, or to stay where the Lord has told you to stay.

Are we relieving ourselves of the trials and sufferings that the Lord has allowed us to be in by making excuses about the conditions of it? Or are we biblical confronting ourselves with a good and prayerful self-examination? Are we praying over and confronting the "tares" in the Church in a biblical, prayerful and Godly way? Just as Jesus hung on that Cross and asked that the Father forgive them, they know not what they do, are we also doing that? We must understand that there are people in the Church that are not truly saved, they are still in the darkness, and we must ask that God forgive them, and we must be conformed to the image of Christ and walk with the same forgiveness He did or we are just as dark as this world. The world around us will see no difference. We must be salt and light. We as true believers have to understand that when we walk out our salvation in this world, when we are being sanctified from one glory to the next, there will be many people that will not like it, will try to stop you, will not like you, will be harsh toward you, and you have to learn to ask that God forgive them, and press on. This world is not your home.

In this world there will be trials, suffering, and people will

hate you, Jesus made that very clear to His followers. We must yield to the Spirit of God, we must depend on His Power to help us navigate our every day life, we must understand this is part of the cost of being His child in this world. One day when we are glorified our full redemption will happen and we will lose this sinful mortal body that we still carry around. Until that time we must press on, we must forgive, and we must understand that the trials and sufferings, even in the Church, must be carried out. We will quickly find that not only do we grow in sanctification, but others around us will too, and the most important thing is that God will be glorified!