There’s no shortage of discussions and debates when it comes to God’s children. We fill up Twitter feeds, bookshelves, and comment boxes with our perspectives on this life of faith.
But sometimes we take it too far.
We draw border lines in God’s kingdom and post “Don’t Cross” signs if you don’t agree. We prohibit community on the basis of preference.
We preach love, compassion, grace, and humility—but first and foremost for those that agree with us. Those others? They can come to the party, but we won’t really talk to them. We’ll be polite and say, “Hi,” but we won’t engage with them as a brother or sister or close friend. We might even roll our eyes and ridicule them behind their back, “How can they believe that? It’s ridiculous.” We see ourselves with the upper hand. We’re more spiritual, more free in Christ.
We hold tight to our cause, whatever it may be—baptism, church worship, pastors or elder board, discipline, homeschooling, the working out of the gifts of the Spirit, eschatology, complementarian or egalitarian, social justice, politics, home church/big church/small church/no church, and on and on.
They’re important topics worthy of humble, truth-seeking, Kingdom building discussions.
When we are willing to divide the Kingdom of God and rally behind the banner of our cause—we’ve missed it.
We’ve traded the glory of God in the face of Christ for something lesser. We diminish the Gospel for peripheral, tangential issues. If we are not mainly about Jesus Christ and Him crucified being the reconciler between us and God, then we have missed the point. Jesus didn’t come so we could set up our individual camps in the Kingdom, He came to redeem us.
If we talk about the tangential issues let it be in grace, humility, and service. Let our speech build the Kingdom, not distract, condemn, or divide. And if we find ourselves so embroiled in our cause, let us take a step back and remember