2 Chronicles 21 tells of King Jehoram of Judah, Jehoshaphat’s eldest son. Unfortunately, he is not faithful to the Lord and instead follows in the steps of the kings of Israel having been influenced by his wife a daughter of Ahab. He leads the people of Judah astray. Because of his unfaithfulness God punishes the people with wars. Jehoram dies a terrible death and is not honored as his father and grandfather were. The scriptures say the he departed with no one’s regret…OUCH!

2 Chronicles 22 and 23 begin with Jehoram’s son Ahaziah becoming king. He is wicked and his reign only lasts one year. God ordains his downfall. He is killed by officials of Judah and his cousins. His mother Athaliah takes the throne and sets out to kill all the royal family.

King Jehoram’s daughter is married to the priest Jehoida. They take joash one of Ahaziah’s sons and hide him from Athaliah. When Joash is old enough, Jehoida enters into a compact with some of the commanders. He also gathers together Levites from the towns of Judah. They make Joash the king and the priests make a covenant with him and God that he will follow the ways of the Lord. Jehoida puts priests in charge of guarding the king.

Athaliah confronts them in the temple and Jehoida has the commanders take her and her followers out to be killed. Jehoida makes a covenant between the people, the king and God that they will be God’s people. The people tear down the house of Baal and its altars and images. Jehoida reinstates the priests who take care of the temple of the Lord and they offer burnt offerings to God. Everyone in Judah rejoices at the change of leadership.

In Ephesians 4 Paul is speaking to both the Jewish and Gentile Christian encouraging them to bear with one another in love. He tells them to maintain the unity of the Spirit. All Christians have these in common: one body (the church), one Spirit,  one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. While we may not always agree about how to understand these things we still hold them in common under Jesus Christ.

Jesus gives us gifts, according to his grace to help build up the body of Christ until we come to a unity of faith and knowledge of Jesus. Paul encourages us not to be blown about by every wind of doctrine. In his day the doctrinal issues were regarding the differences between Jewish and Gentile understandings of what Jesus had done. Our issues are many and complex, but the resulting divisions are no less damaging to the unity of the Church.

Paul encourages us to put away our old lives and to grow up in every way into Jesus, who is the head of the body. Paul tells us to be angry about unrighteousness but not to sin. He exhorts us not to speak evil about one another, putting aside all bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander and malice. We are to be kind to one another, tenderhearted and forgiving just as God in Christ has forgiven us.

There has always been conflict in the church, from its very beginnings. In some ways that should be a comfort to us that we are not alone or the first to have problems in the church, whether it be in our individual congregations, denominations, or between denominations. It should also be a challenge to us to become more mature about the way we practice our faith. We need to stop the sibling rivalry and instead seek to serve our one Lord Jesus Christ. We all need to remember that we have been loved and forgiven through Christ and God wants us to forgive and love each other as the body of Christ.