We exist to be unified and to build one another up! That’s the idealistic desire and direction, but there is a realistic disposition that can sometimes cause destruction. We’re trying to live out this new life but then there are other people…..who might punch us in the mouth. We also cannot forget our roll and contribution to a culture of conflict. For others, we’re the other people making it difficult. How are you, me, we going to address this? We have responses that are similar to the world. The world and the church do love, relationship, and conflict the same ways… not healthy. Division, retaliation, bitterness and destruction rule the day. When we are loved, pursued, spiritually alive people, in relationship with God, how we do love, do relationship, and yes even how we do conflict needs to be distinct from the world. Jesus said we’ll be known in the world by what? Our love for one another. If gospel unity is going to be experienced as a community then gospel purity needs to be pursed as individuals in community. Our life with God is tied to our life with God’s people. We cannot believe that the vertical relationship we have with God, if it is vital and active won’t impact our horizontal relationships. We don’t live dead, we live as ones who have been made alive. So there is a transformation that changes what it means to be alive and how we now live.