About a year ago, a small voice whispered to me, “speak Truth.” This voice is one I’ve become intimately acquainted with… It’s the voice of the Holy Spirit. Normally, I don’t feel intimidated by what He asks of me, but this was different. It was like I saw the church around me going up in flames, and the only way to save it was to speak the Truth. And speak it boldly.
Anyone that knows me knows I can be bold, but it’s usually with my leggings or clothing choices, and, sometimes, with my hair. Mostly, though, I’m relatively reserved unless it’s someone I know well. So you can imagine that this nudging of the Holy Spirit was a lot for me. “How?” I asked. “Trust me.”
Then today, I heard it again. Someone posed a question in one of my Facebook groups, “Am I a Christian?” This person went on to explain how their faith differed from those around them and there was a legitimate fear regarding relationships. It got me thinking about myself.
Today, the church is incredibly polarized. I hate being political, but I need to be for just a moment. (Please note: I will not post what party or candidate I vote because, let’s be real, it’s irrelevant.) I saw an article the other day where someone criticised a particular politician and suddenly others within their faith attacked them, calling them horrendous names. My heart broke because their faith is mine, and this is not how Christ would have us act among our brothers and sisters.
Do you know what Jesus said a marker of his disciples would be? Love. Unconditional love. A love that knows no bounds. This love is radical. It does not mean that I agree with everything another does. Anyone can tell you I’ve had my share of disagreements with friends and family. But I still love them. I would go to the ends of the earth for them. 1 Corinthians 13 has perhaps one of the greatest definitions of Love in the Bible. Often, this passage is read at weddings, but it’s not related to that kind of love. It’s related to the kind of love that Christ has for us… Unconditional. A love that meets us where we are, yet spurs us to become better. Yet here we are, polarized and a disagreement automatically means that we do not love another, especially with the anonymity of the internet where the meek suddenly become bold.
Dear Church, this is not The Way. The Way of Christ would have us see our enemies and meet their needs (see the story of the Good Samaritan). The Way of Christ would see us go the extra mile with those who govern us. The Way of Christ would have us turn the other cheek to those who’ve hurt us (and let me also say this… “turning the other cheek” does not mean getting walked all over, but that’s a post for another day). The Way of Christ would have us all united in bringing the Gospel that Jesus is King and the Kingdom is imminent to those around us, yet here we are, spewing vitriol at anyone that would attempt to oppose us forgetting that our enemy is not of this world.
So what are we going to do, Church? Are we going to continue these divisive games of us versus them, or are we going to unite in proclaiming the Good News that is for all people? When Jesus returns and separates the sheep from the goats, where will you be? “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (Rev 2:4), Jesus tells the church of Ephesus in Revelation. Where are we now, church? What is this love we have for Christ that we so easily throw it away for power instead of love? We must, collectively, seek to be better, to do better, and remember our job isn’t to control the government but proclaim the good news that Christ is King and we cannot do that when we trade love for power. You now have the choice. Will you choose to love? or will you choose to gain as much power as possible without regard to those who’ve yet to hear the good news?
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