Putting Away Our Swords

Exerpted from Living Is Easy With Your Eyes Closed:

"Why do Christians not agree on such important matters? Is it because some are more spiritually mature than others? Are some more hermeneutically astute and able to gain more accurate insight into the word of God? Surely God doesn’t contradict himself. What shall we do when well-meaning Christians come up with different answers from the ones God has clearly revealed to us as his truth?.....

But what about the issues? Shouldn’t we take stands on important issues like human rights, war, and even life itself? Of course. We must. This isn’t to say that all Christians will take the same stand. As long as we are fallen and our perceptions are colored by our experiences, as long as we have blind spots and different personalities (aggressive and passive, patient and impulsive, philosophical and practical, creative and rigid), we will continue coming up with different answers. We will disagree over disarmament and genetic planning, over movie-going and laetrile.
Yet somehow in the tension between the poles, God continues to work. Love leads us to an appreciative understanding of the unique contribution each member makes to the body of Christ, and thus the tension is creative. But without the willingness to lay aside, at least for at ime, our own position in order to affirm a dissenting brother or sister, the tension will undoubtedly be destructive. I suspect that Christ is working overtime these days healing the ears (and egos) of those we have slashed in his defense. Perhaps it is time we put away our swords and began displaying the mark of “Christ-ones:” Love."
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… an excerpt from Theirs is the Kingdom by Robert Lupton

I highly recommend his entire post!