FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Isaiah 11:1-9; Ephesians 3:1-13

There is no group within the Christian community who has the corner either on God or on truth. Today is a good day to remember that. Christians all over are considering our common calling and the mutual responsibilities we share. No one Christian group has it together so astoundingly more than any other. The different groups rightly have differing practices and theological emphases. The right group for you is the one in which a particular mix of practices and doctrinal concerns are most meaningful to you, make the most sense to you, and help you the most with celebrating the reality of the living God.

Your group, my group, or our group is not “better” or more important than another. I think one of the great sins of Christians in the modern world is our tendency toward separatism and elitism about our own little brand of the faith. By focusing so much on our theological position and its correctness over all the others, we have wasted an enormous amount of energy which has kept us from doing the deeds commanded of all Christians, matters which are commanded of us by God and are nonnegotiable, and nonrelated to a particular denomination. There is so much absolute clarity about matters of ministry and witness that there is more than we can keep up with; arrogance and infighting among Christian groups over what isn’t clear or necessary to faith-expression is despicable and an absolute insult to the one God for all people.

Rather than spending time trying to determine who’s right and who’s wrong or who’s more right than any other group, we should be moving without delay to do the work clearly set out for all of God’s people, to help make this world the place the prophet Isaiah envisioned. He spoke of a time when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). Let that be what we, with all our sisters and brothers in Christ all over the world, work toward.

As we recommit ourselves to the tasks God has given us to do, we pause to give thanks also for our sisters and brothers in every expression of the Christian faith and all women and men in this world who join with us in naming Jesus Christ as Lord. We need each other.

We won’t all agree on all the details and fine points of faith expression, and we do not need to. There will even continue to be major differences in our concerns and how we express our faith. Why should that be a problem? These people are like us, simply fortunate and blessed to have found an entry into the Christian family. We are not the leaders or even first among equals. Jesus Christ is the head of the family, and through Him we find our way, as do all the others, to the blessings of God. We all quickly find also that this family is a working family. When we come to grips with the reality that God truly is the one God for all people, even for all Christians, there’s more to do than all of us can accomplish with our very best efforts! Let’s make sure to go forth in the assurance of God’s presence with us when we serve the Lord and with the knowledge that there is more support and love in the family in Christ than we have ever taken the time to see.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Isaiah 11:1-9; Ephesians 3:1-13

The revelation God gave Paul was a mystery; and no one before Paul had comprehended it fully. Certainly there had been hints here and there throughout Israel’s history, but as God worked in Paul’s life, all the hints began to be pulled together. As Paul saw these in light of Jesus Christ, the truth dawned upon him in a way no one else, to that point in time, had seen it. So, even though the facts were as old as creation, the truth was new to the world that Paul knew. It took Jesus and someone completely sold out to Him, namely the apostle Paul, to bring the mystery to light. That’s why Paul calls it not just a “mystery,” but the “mystery of Christ” (Ephesians 3:4).

God is not an exclusive or private possession of any person, family, church, denomination, nation, or Christian. God is the God of all people and for all people. While there are many benefits which come to Christians, benefits which come to us as children of God, we cannot assume that God loves us while not loving those who differ from us. The fact of the matter is, God is not possessed by anyone. God possesses. God possesses those who allow Him to relate to them in personal relationship. That possibility is open to everyone. No one is excluded.

As Christianity began to spread throughout the first-century world, more Gentiles than Jews came under its banner. Not only was there a place for the Gentiles in the church, but, also in time, they championed the cause of Christianity. In God’s eyes, Jews were not preferred over the Gentiles. So, Paul said to the early Jewish Christians, “the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6). Whatever the inheritance is, it will not be based on anyone’s nationality or religious preference. Regardless of any other circumstance, the inheritance of abundant life is offered to every single one of those who choose a life of commitment to God.

There is a communal element to this fact. All of God’s people are members of one body, the church, the body of Christ. We are all related to one another, dependent on one another, and involved with one another. We’re all working toward the same goals, at least supposedly, so we’re supportive and not divisive. Anyone who is not with us is in that position for one of two reasons, as far as I can tell. The person either does not know about the possibility of a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ or does know and has consciously decided not to be a part of it. Sad as that is to say, it is a factual truth in this day and age.

If this assessment is true, there are some matters we need to straighten out. We are a part of the larger human family, and all of us are loved by God. Jesus gave His life so all of us might come to know God personally.

If we have really heard the gospel then all of us who name Jesus Christ as Lord are preoccupied with helping others hear who haven’t. One-time Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, expressed it simply: “The Church is . . . a minority in a world to be won for Christ.” ^[1] That staggers us a bit; we don’t like to think we’re in a minority because we like to be in control.

To Be Continued

^[1] Clyde E. Fant, Jr. and William M. Pinson, Jr., eds., Centuries of Great Preaching (Waco: Word, 1971).
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Isaiah 11:1-9; Ephesians 3:1-13

In spite of our verbal commitment to reach out to others in Jesus’ name, Christians have spent a good deal of our evangelistic and missionary energy trying to get persons not just to come to God in Christ, but to fit in with our system. We could reach out to people on the foreign mission or home mission field. We have not done much for people of different cultures who might get seriously interested in joining our churches and seeking the same kinds of leadership opportunities the rest of us want. You see, Paul wasn’t proclaiming a Christian community in which people have their places and have churches built for them in their part of town. Paul didn’t preach a “they-have-their-place” gospel; he preached a “come-in-and-sit-with-me” gospel.

Much of Christendom has yet to deal fairly with the issue of the equality of women and men before God. They don’t always have to be on one side or another of a husband to have status and a voice in the church. They don’t always have to be on the front side of the pulpit either. We haven’t fully believed or accepted it yet, but someone once summed up the whole matter: “At the foot of the cross, all are equal.” When the church decides to move away from the foot of the cross of Jesus, it may be a great organization, but it is no longer the church of Jesus Christ.

The message of inclusiveness burned deeply within Paul, and it colored all he said and did. He was bold enough to preach it. He was God’s spokesperson for that hour. Notice that his place in God’s plan didn’t make him peerless or entitle him to any position of exclusivity.

If, in any way, our nation, church, or families have been blessed of God, this has not come because we have earned it or God likes us better than anyone else; it is for the purpose of greater service. That’s the way things work in God’s system. Any blessing or talent or special calling is not for the recipient’s personal acclaim, to set her or him apart; it is for use in ministry to God’s people, either those in the church or still outside the church. This means that if God has brought you through some dark valley like depression, alcoholism, or bereavement, your job is only half done when you rejoice and praise God for His gift. You haven’t done what you need to do until you make yourself available to others who need help out of the same bondage from which you’ve been freed. All this implies that we refuse to see those groping in darkness (for whatever reason) as God-forsaken. No human being is or ever has been God-forsaken. We have repeatedly forsaken God, and God has repeatedly given us the freedom of our choices. God is not in the business of forsaking people, no matter what their plight, because of a divine and eternal love beyond our understanding.

The Jews and most of the early Jewish Christians thought the Gentiles were God-forsaken. Here were God’s people busily involved in leaving people out and often saying that there simply could be no place for them in the churches.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Isaiah 11:1-9; Ephesians 3:1-13

When we organize a club or church, we act as if we want everybody to be a part of what we’re going to do; it can be that important to us. In reality, though, we spend our greatest amount of energy dealing with those whom we do not regard as suited for our clique. We deal with our elitism by saying that barriers to participation can be overcome by any outsider who will agree with our point of view, denounce what we denounce, get a wardrobe up to par, and understand that people of color still have their place.

Strangely enough, and we almost never remember this, the earliest Christians were Jews like Jesus. The early Jewish Christians, too, misunderstood their position in relation to God. Jesus and Christianity ultimately were not only for the Jews; the early Jewish Christians didn’t have exclusive rights either to God or this new revelation of God through Jesus. They were to take the benefits of their relationship with the Lord and become witnesses to all persons. They were to point others to Jesus Christ as Lord.

However, most often it didn’t work that way. Generally, they became possessive, proud, and selfish as they imagined that Jesus was only for them. Anybody who wanted to become a Christian, they believed, had to become a Jew first. Well, of course! Anybody who doesn’t do it our way is suspect.

Because of the brief earthly ministry of our Lord, this issue became more focused in Paul’s ministry than in Jesus’ ministry. When Paul wrote this Letter to the Ephesians, he was in jail. He was in jail when he wrote Ephesians for an unbelievable reason.

Paul, too, was a Jew. He had maintained his contact with the Jewish traditions and practices as long as there was no conflict with the implications of his faith in Jesus Christ. He had gone to the temple one day with two Gentile men; he had taken a couple of friends to worship with him, and he was accused of taking them further into the temple than they were supposed to go. The temple was set up in sections. Animals, Gentiles, and lepers could only go in a little way into a court called “The Court of the Gentiles.” Jewish women could go a little further. Jewish men could go a little further still. Priests could go up to the holy of holies, but only the high priest could go all the way into the center of the temple. The holy of holies was where the presence of the living God was thought to dwell, and a high priest could go to the center only one time a year. Paul was accused of taking Gentiles beyond their rightful place, and he was put in jail for it.

Now, Paul stood in a unique relationship with God, no doubt. It was in his ministry that a place for Gentiles in the church was first proclaimed. That was no easy position to take. Anytime the church makes some expansive choice to include, at any level, those who have not been freely accepted the status quo is threatened.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Isaiah 11:1-9; Ephesians 3:1-13

It’s rather flattering, isn’t it, to be in some group which seems to receive God’s special favor? Correct or not, many people imagine that this is true of them. Some people say our nation is so favored. They measure “divine favor” by material prosperity and progress. We are a wealthy nation. We are a free nation. We are a strong nation in many respects. We call ourselves a “Christian nation” which is problematic, since a large number of our citizens are, by conviction, non-Christian and, technically, only individuals and not institutions can be Christian. Nonetheless, we claim to be a Christian nation. In our pledge of allegiance, we refer to ourselves as “one nation under God.” Our currency testifies that: “In God we trust.” This should be adequate proof, shouldn’t it, that God surely favors us over all the rest?

Some families who have a rather “smooth” life think God is bestowing special favor on them. They have money and jobs and believe that God helps those who help themselves. The children have never given their parents any real trouble, and the parents have never embarrassed the children through irresponsible behavior. Everyone gets along. They’ve experienced no tragedies, and they think, We know how to please God.

Some individuals think they have the corner on God’s favor. Not long ago, an entertainer who sang songs about adultery received an award for her singing. As she tearfully accepted, she said, “God is so good.” A Christian woman who believed that faith healing and the right kind of prayers were just the things said to an acquaintance who was dying from cancer, “The reason you can’t get well is because there is unforgiven sin in your life which you ought to confess to God.” To top it off, many believe if you aren’t as favored, it is because you have little to know faith.

Now, who really is “in good” with God? Who are God’s “special children”? Americans? Families for whom life is smooth? People who receive widely publicized honors and awards? Christians who are physically healthy? What about non-Americans? What about families with tons of pressures and problems and people who never get any fame, honor, or even a pat on the back? Aren’t people who suffer illness and disease tenderly loved by God, too?

The earliest people with whom God had a “special relationship” were the Israelites. They were the “chosen” people of God. But, they misunderstood their “chosen-ness.” Their status wasn’t a position of favoritism. It was a position of service. The Jews didn’t have exclusive rights to God. They were to take the benefits of their relationship with God and become a light to the nations. They were to point others to God. But, most often, it didn’t work that way. Generally, as is true of most groups who have become proud of their chosen-ness, they became possessive and imagined that God was interested in them alone, working for them and not for other groups of people. In fact, the circle of who is regarded as “chosen ones” becomes smaller and smaller over time.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.