Discipling for disagreement...

Have been thinking recently about how full the early church was of disagreement; Paul confronting Peter to his face, or falling out with Barnabas over whether to take John Mark on his 2nd trip, the seemingly constant disputes between those of Jewish and Gentile backgrounds, Paul pleading that Euodia and Syntyche should agree and so it goes on.

Which all tends to fly in the face of the idealised picture of the early church we sometimes have. At a most basic level, the fact that the New Testament is so full of exhortations to love each other, consider others better than yourselves etc is most likely because it wasn't always happening. So, how do we accept and allow for the fact that we are likely to see things differently, get frustrated with one another and at times fall out like any family without diluting the high standards for relationships between Christians that the New Testament encourages us towards? Should we be discipling one another to get hurt and get over it, and keep loving, or is that an admission of defeat? It seems to me the reason that people at times become disillusioned with church life is because it promises so much - and it's right that it should. The challenge is to allow too for our humanity and weakness, without letting ourselves off the hook too lightly.