Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. – Romans 14:19
As believers in the Lord we can hurt and even destroy others who are called by the name of Christ. The Lord has died for all of us and we are all his but we can “destroy someone for whom Christ died” (Romans 14:15) by our biblical convictions and ways we handle the truth. There of course are non-negoitable truths in the bible that we must all hold to, yet there are many cases where practical application to the truth is not made and we must be graceful over differences that occur in the body of Christ. What a terrible indictment that some where potentially hurting others to the place of destroying their faith. Paul even said that they could “destroy the work of God for the sake of food” (Romans 14:20). Making believers fall away over pridefully holding to convictions of holiness. Destroying God’s work and Church over areas of liberty. What a tragedy that this can happen amongst fellow believers in the family of God. Do you believe in a traditional church calendar, easter, and other holy days? Good. Do you feel most of these traditional days have pagan roots and you do not have a good conscience about it? Good. Let both keep these matters to themselves Paul was saying over non-essential practices. Of course we should simply follow in what we feel our conscience is leading us but let us not judge our brother or sister for not seeing things how we see it. There are opportunities to speak in love over an issue, but this must be done with love and great grace, with the only motive to encourage the other fellow believer and not try to make them like you.
read more: https://gregjgordon.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/making-every-effort-to-seek-after-peace-with-brethren/