happy Friday and welcome back to the podcast Pastor John is back in the studio with us back to talk with us about Christian Unity today we love Christian Unity we Aspire for more Community Christian Unity is not uniformity differences exist among Believers so Christian Unity gets pretty complex leading to a question like this one today on for Peter 3 verse 8
 here is the email hello Pastor John my name is Charlotte and I live in Yorkshire England my question for you as puzzle be 4 years in 1st Peter 3:8 Peter urges the exiled Christians to have Unity of mind that's Peter's exact phrase Unity of mine I want her to put your say that this Unity of mine does not however mean uniformity since send a struggle to understand the difference we have basic Creeds and confessions that we must all agree on as the very foundations of Christianity beliefs otherwise it would be heretical how then can we not have uniformity what is this Unity of Mind Peter didn't insert a clause that left this just to church leaders only for sale so how does the individual Christian pursue this
 I have often shared this perplexity about how unified our convictions and our preferences and our opinions as Christian should be but I've gotten help especially in recent years by distinguishing between passages that deal with unified convictions or views of God or Christ our Salvation on the one hand and passages that deal with a unified Minds set my car because you don't have a better English word for this idea of attitude set or disposition and I feel warranted in making a distinction not only because there are some peculiar Greek words that uses for mindset that are different site from the illogical convictions but also because for example in Romans 14
 he actually deals with differences of conviction that Christians have without pushing them toward unanimity of conviction but rather pushing them toward unanimity in a certain mindset about how to handle the differences so let me try to illustrate what I mean about the difference between a theological convictions on the one hand and unified Minds set on the other hand
 so here from sample in Ephesians 4:12 and 13 it says Christ gave pastors and teachers to the church to equip the signs for the work of the ministry for the building up of the body of Christ until this is where it's supposed to be moving until we all attend to the unity of the face and of the knowledge of the Son of God so that's what I'm referring to when I say that the bible really does urge toward seeking theological biblical Unity a unified understanding of God in Christ and how to live the Christian life and I think the best strategy for moving toward that goal
 is the humbly and Faithfully immerse ourselves in the Bible seeking to understand it with all the resources historically devotional e academically that we can and then as we grow and speak and preach and teach and write and lived that truth as we see it we pray that God would bring more and more people into a true understanding of this word but I don't think that's what Peter is talking about in 1st Peter 3:8 Charlotte is asking about date and in most places in the New Testament where being of one mind is referred to the idea is to urge us toward identical convictions as good as that is but
 a common unified mindset or attitude and here we bumped into those peculiar Greek words that I mentioned earlier there's this amazing Greek word that takes on lots of meanings when it combines with different prefixes of the word of talking about for the Greek writers who listen to us and the the basic idea is mine set up a meeting that we don't have any wish we could say attitude set not just the way of thinking but a combined is thinking and feeling or a combination of conviction and disposition so for example if some of those combinations will you put the prefix on the front and it changes the meanings home of front is one of my top it off
 slowly mindset kind of front country. Exalting insane Zillow front is amazing. The point is simply to say that this stem front is a front how is used not mainly referring to ideas or Viewpoint it's mainly referring to particular disposition or mindsets our attitudes in 1st Peter 3:8 which we finally all of you have Unity of mine, Franny's unified similar mindset sympathy brotherly love
 humble honest as humble mindset at the end of Peters giving a list of five things that Christians are to have the list begins with unified mindset so my understanding is that the humble mindset defines what the unified mind set is supposed to be be unified in the humble mindset that all Christians should have and I feel especially confirmed in putting those two together the words the front the word of the back of those lists because we find an amazingly similar combination of words in Romans 12:16 the ESV says live in harmony with one another not literally
 it's be of the same mindset to be of the same mindset other and then don't be haughty please don't have a self exalting mindsets to associate with never be wise in your own sight voiced in other words there's another way of saying don't have a self exalting mine said have a humble mindset same cluster thoughts that we had in 1st Peter 3:8 so the call to Unity of Mind Is defined by Paul and by Peter as a a humble mindset not a self exalting mindset probably the most important passage of all in the New Testament on the unity of mine.
 Philippians 2 2 through 5 and it's a remarkable a sequence of thought it goes like this post is complete my joy complete my Joy by being of the same mind that is having the same mindset having the same love being in full Accord it is I'm with you heart and soul Sushi koi just like in Acts 4:32 it's just a true one hard one soul and all of One mind that is one mine set
 no he lays out to have him call them to the nature of the mindset in 3 steps and the dishes goes right to the heart of the Christian Life and what it means to be to be unified in this way number one verse three do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves I think that means count them worthy of your sacrificial service second Force fourth Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others third Force 5
 it's it's the biggest have this mind to have this mindset among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus and then he unfolds that glorious display of service and sacrifice of self emptying and humility that Jesus did when he left his father's throne and became so the unity Paul and Peter are calling for in these texts including 1st Peter 3:8 repeater what he's calling for is focused not on having the same opinions that there's a level at which that really matters but rather what was being stressed in these texts is the same mindset the same disposition of heart the same attitude sacrificial servant heart for others
 maybe one last quick glance at Romans 14 to draw out the difference between the way Paul handled when you when you can agree to Romans 14 your real differences of opinion of differences among the Christians one person believes he may eat anything while the weak person eat only vegetables they just can't they can't get it together if they don't agree and verse five say one person esteems one day above another while another seems all days I liked it there just stopped it's a disagreement and it's not going away and I'm sure Paul really would prefer that they all agree on these things that would make life a lot easier but they don't and his primary approach to that problem is not at least not in Romans 14
 not to get them all to agree what what what what does he do and I only mention one thing he does several unusual things and you can read the whole chapter to see all the ways he approaches this but here's here's goes right to the heart of the matter he penetrates
 mindset that knits their souls together it says this is Versa 2 in 6 the one who observes the day in honor of the Lord in honor of the Lord that you give thanks to God while the one who abstained in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God how to lay hold on a unified mindset of doing all to the honor of the Gods listed puts the Lord first however you may disagree on the application so my conclusion for Charlotte's question that she asked us is that
 while see a logical biblical Unity of conviction is important and we should pursue it as Paul and Peter did often in their writings existence is a pursuit of that kind of unity nevertheless just as often as they explicitly said things about that Peter and Paul presses toward Unity of unity of attitude set disposition or attitude that is marked by humility and service and sacrifice and sliced exalting motive for all that's that's the unity that he's talking about in 1st Peter 3:8
 yeah God centered mindset or attitude or dispositional unit even marked by love that's a humble way to shape this entire conversation on Unity think about your John and thank you for joining us today we ask a question of your own search are growing archive or subscribe to the podcast all at a special john.com
 and speaking of love and unity love covers a multitude of sins Peter makes that point also in 1st Peter of a little later a chapter later in 1st Peter 4 verse 8 so what does that mean when love covers a multitude of sins how does that work who sends do we cover how do we cover them will find out next time on the other side of the weekend three question coming up I'm hosting the Yankee and we'll see you back here on Monday have a great weekend