If you were dead and are now alive again, claimed as Christ's own for all of eternity, with all of your sins paid for by the voluntary death of the single most powerful person that has ever lived on the planet, then perhaps getting worked up about the opinions of others isn't worth your time and energy.
Remember, it was tremendously challenging for the early church to come together. There were Jews, with their rigorous dietary and social laws that directed every part of life, and the Gentiles, who didn't have such laws and didn't see any need for them. Jesus was Jewish, but he came to fulfill the Law, but the early church didn't have the New Testament to give them hints -- they had to figure it out, day by day, Sunday by Sunday, working together. As you can imagine, some people felt very strongly about the best ways to honor God. Others felt very strongly about different ways to honor God. I can imagine these disagreements got heated at times. And yet, the church prevailed.
So it will prevail today, too. We are nourished and knit together, grown by a growth that is from God. Just as God was at work in the early church, reminding them that they were claimed by God and would not be defeated by the powers of this world, the same is true of you -- you are marked as Christ's own forever and will not be torn asunder by dissension in the world. So may we relax and be gracious when others oppose us, and trust in the Holy Spirit to build our relationships and gently challenge us to grow as a community, knit together by God.
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