I remember when I was in high school, walking around a college campus with my brother and a few of our friends. We would walk four or five wide, like we were headed to the OK Corral. We were invincible. Every college girl noticed us (whether they realized it or not), and we could go wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted, no matter what.
We would stir up a little trouble, just to see if the rule enforcers would challenge us. They usually didn't. If somebody did confront one of us, the others were always around to shut that somebody down.
I had a similar experience in the Air Force. A small band of brothers who were extremely hard on each other, but would defend one another to the hilt against any outsiders.
This was unity. A group of people who worked together to accomplish a purpose. Who held each other to a high standard. Who protected each other from the divisiveness of potential threats.
Within the church, the devil has nurtured a seed of disunity among believers. Some call it "denominational loyalty." Some call it, "closeness in my local church," and some even elevate it to the point of calling it, "the doctrine of separation."
This is a short blog post. I won't go into the arrogance it must require to create an idea and call it "doctrine" when it isn't even eluded to in scripture. I won't go into any of the many ways people have been hurt, driven away from the church, and have even rejected Jesus because of these separatists.
I'll just briefly talk about one of the logical purposes of the unity we are commanded to. Oh yeah, while we're not directed in scripture do be separated from other believers, we are actually commanded to work together in unity. Where did we miss that one? Check it out.
I can't list them all here, but read Paul's plea to believers for loving unity in Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.
But let's keep moving.
This unity idea even makes sense to non-Christ-followers. Major corporations put all kinds of systems in place to keep their employees informed on the big picture, their common goals. The US military straight-up changes your entire personality to make you more like your co-workers. Everyone is constantly reminded of what their responsibility is and their value in the ultimate scheme of things.
This is because these organizations know that to get anywhere everyone must pull together. They weed out individuals who would rather pull for themselves.
But not the Church.
We talk about what "circle" of believers we're most comfortable in. We raise our children to believe that Christ-followers who think about something a little differently are lesser Christians or their parents just aren't as mature as we are.
Everywhere we go we create division amongst ourselves by raising flags Jesus never raised. We fight over music, cigarettes, alcohol, clothes, tattoos, building styles, church sizes, teaching styles, children's ministry structures, education preferences...the list just goes on and on and on...
How is it that we think we can be effective this way? We know a house divided against itself cannot stand. Yet, we are constantly seeking ways to be divided.
And we've been doing it for hundreds of years!
Why do we so enjoy disagreeing?
Because we are each so in love with ourselves!
Oh, and we forget where we're going!
We are satisfied treading water in our perceived "spiritual maturity" and choose to ignore the fact that we are bearing so little fruit.
Guess what? Jesus doesn't love division! He doesn't receive any glory from our bickering amongst ourselves.
I'm no genius. I don't have any answers.
I know that what I have to do is constantly be reminded of my purpose. That is to show the love of Jesus to the world around me, and love my fellow Christ-follower as well. This is how Jesus said we would impact the world. This is how we get their attention and create opportunities to share the gospel.
I understand that I must pursue obedience and holiness, but these are groomed in an attitude of love because my love is what motivates me to Christlikeness.
Divisiveness is never borne out of love and humility. It is always borne out of selfishness and pride.
This doesn't mean I shouldn't stand against sin. It means that if I'm going to stand against anything and call it sin, it had better be something Jesus stood against and that He called sin.
That's my rant for now.
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