A thought came to me the other day during our morning devotions time. The Sadducees were one of the religious groups prominent during the time of Jesus. They were associated with the temple at Jerusalem and didn’t believe in a resurrection. There is no question that they were devout worshippers of God. Another group mentioned by Jesus were the Pharisees. They were more “rural” and from the lower class. They too were devout, and they did believe in a final resurrection. Saint Paul was a Pharisee and embraced their view in regard to an afterlife.

You can’t get any further apart than that, resurrection or not. A big difference between two groups, but both believed in the God of Abraham. All worshippers need not believe the same things.

God created us as individuals with the capacity to think different things and hold varying beliefs.

What a dull world it would be if this were not the case. When it comes to points of scripture and theology, we shall never have unaniminity of opinion. Even scholars disagree about some of the most basic tenants of the faith.

The secret is to accept people who don’t always agree with us. John Wesley put it this way when he wrote: “The Methodists alone do not insist on holding this or that opinion, but they think and let think.” Wesley realized that not everyone in his churches would ever agree on doctrine. He knew that God created us as thinking individuals who don’t always come to the same conclusions.

The world famous serenity prayer says, “God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Some people’s opinions and views won’t change and after we have voiced a different opinion, it is better to accept that sometimes folks just see it a different way. Who knows, they might even be right.

That which unites us as Christians is greater than our differences. The uniting principle is our commonality in affirming Jesus as Lord. That is the most important reality of all.