The Bride of Christ has a Cutting Habit

As a pastor, I am weary. Not only of the whole Covid thing, or the political thing.   I'm  weary of wading through much of the stuff that gets sent to my inbox by well-meaning people that I love who are trying to "get me on their side" in hopes of using my influence to help gain a following. Yes, I'm weary of Christians who have forgotten their calling and have made it their mission to champion lesser callings even to the detriment of the other members of the church.

We Christians, have almost always, been our own worst enemies.  And many of us have ceased to promote the cause of God as we have been side-tracked promoting the causes of men.  And whenever that happens, division occurs in the church.

To be sure, there is already plenty to divide Christians, what with our doctrinal differences and understanding of the scriptures from our varying vantage points and ecclesiastic filters.  Differences of opinion have always existed, but they don’t have to divide us.  In fact, they can be learning points as we discuss and share our understandings with others and they with us.

It’s when we cease discussing and instead, begin yelling, both verbally and non-verbally, that the damage is done.  And let’s be clear, there is lots of damage being done to the Body of Christ right now by those inside it.   It is as if the Bride of Christ has become enmeshed in self-destructive cutting, seeking to do another part of the Body in, never realizing that cutting one part of the body always takes its toll on our own part of the Body.  We can’t build up our side while the other side bleeds out!  We are ONE BODY!

And to an on-looking world, we appear to be more and more psychotic, and the cause of Christ is dismissed as ludicrous and laughable.  And as the Body bleeds, it bleeds precious souls who can no longer stomach the infighting and the aggression shown by one part for the other.

Often, those are the souls of the young, who take the very life-blood of the Body with them.  They have enough Jesus that they want to hold on to Him, but want to distance themselves from His Bride because they either cannot make sense of the Church any longer, or they themselves have been led to take up lesser causes by those in charge.

This is not new, you know.  We find an interesting story recorded in the book of 1 Corinthians. The topic: Meat offered to idols.  Oh…it was divisive.  

“We are free in Christ!”, one would say, “and therefore it doesn’t matter that it was offered to idols!”   “But we have left idol worship and there is so much other food out there!  Why should we go back to eating that food?”  “You are just yielding to fear and not standing in your freedom in Christ!”  And the debate got so hot they finally asked Paul to weigh in.  And Paul approached it from a whole different angle than they were expecting.

1Cor. 8:4    So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. ⁵ There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. ⁶  But for us,

  There is one God, the Father,

by whom all things were created,

and for whom we live.

And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ,

through whom all things were created,

and through whom we live.

And those on the “freedom” side of the issue went…aha…see…WE were right!!  But Paul isn’t done yet. Let’s read on.

1Cor. 8:7    However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. ⁸ It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.

Do you see where Paul is heading here?  And the next sentence is key here as we even look for application today.

1Cor. 8:9    But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. ¹⁰ For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? ¹¹ So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. ¹² And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. 

And then Paul finishes with his own declaration—¹³ So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.

The principle is simple— Live your life in such a way that you seek to build other people into stronger believers. It means living as a Christian on a higher plane than just our own thoughts and beliefs.  It is taking others into consideration as we hold ourselves to a higher standard of seeking to be Christ-like in our behavior. It means humbly laying down our “rights” as humbly as Christ laid down His life.  

And yet, here we are a few thousand years later, and many of us have either never stumbled on this part of the Bible, or have forgotten this principle as we use the same logic and arguments of those in the world and seek to pummel those who oppose us into alignment with our beliefs about politics, the virus, masks vs. no masks and vaxx vs. anti-vaxx.   And when they refuse, we either redouble the direct attacks at them, or we (perhaps angrily or perhaps sadly) leave them and join others who believe like we on those topics, and talk about how ignorant, mislead and wrong the other side is.  And we forget that they are someone for whom Christ died.

While I’m not suggesting that you violate your own conscience in any way, I am suggesting that perhaps you could tone down the rhetoric when discussing them online, as well as in person, with someone who may not see things as you.  Where you may see a conspiracy or loss of freedoms, others are living in abject fear of a disease that has perhaps already taken a loved one from them.  To ridicule them for their fear doesn’t build up the Body of Christ.  It cuts it open.

And while you may believe that everyone should be wearing a mask, being critical, judgmental and dismissive of those who perhaps choose not to or see it as an invasion of their freedom also doesn’t build up the Body.  It cuts it open more.

Have you considered that it is pride that keeps us from even wanting to humble ourselves to help someone on the other side?  What if we were to humble ourselves, for the sake of Christ, and actually try to apply Biblical principles to the difficult situation that we face?

What if, for those who believe it is necessary to wear masks for the health of the whole community,  we were able to re-apply Paul’s words of 1 Cor 8:7 here?  Perhaps we could rephrase it to read:  “We don’t lose anything if we wear it and we don’t gain anything if we don’t wear it.”  In other words, wearing a mask is not necessarily the point, but what if, though I might not believe in their efficacy, I went ahead and wore one in public, not for MY sake, but for the sake of those who are fearful and just want to feel safe?  Could I further the cause of Christ by simply being considerate of others?  

And for those who would love to see forced vaccines, what if you were to go back and look at verse 12.  "And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ."

Christ’s way has never been one of force, or ridicule, or superiority, or battling of words or any of the things we employ as we seek to best our opponents, whether inside or outside the church.  His has always been a way of love and of choosing to humble oneself for the good of others, putting their needs ahead of one’s own.

Have we forgotten why Christ died and the message He entrusted to us?  It isn’t to politics, or to champion masks or vaccines that we are called.  We are called to so much more.  Ours is a calling that is to help people see that God loved so much that He sent His son Jesus to die because He was not willing for ANY to perish!

If we continue on, I fear that with each jab, stab or slice, more precious souls will continue to bleed out of the Body, leaving it weakened and dying.  And we are doing it to ourselves! We were meant for so much more.  Christ calls us to a higher level.  And if we continue to attack one another within the walls of the church, Christ’s sacrifice and message of Love is totally voided and nullified in the eyes of an onlooking world.

Though the commandments, the Sabbath, the Sanctuary and the Second Coming doctrines are all important, NONE of them are what Christ said would be His identifying mark of His followers.  There is only ONE identifying mark and we are missing it badly right now, Church.

John 13:35  “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

The left hand has to stop cutting on the right and the right has to stop slicing the left.  We are all ONE body.  Let’s take care of ourselves through the power of Christ and then get on with taking HIS message to a dying world because THAT is our true mission.

Philippians 2:5-11
5    You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6    Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
⁷  Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
⁸  he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
9    Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
¹⁰  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹  and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.