God did not say…
The past few weeks, I have been having quite a conversation both with friends and in my prayers during my quiet time. I have chatted with people in my community and taken time to ask God about these same issues. It’s not been easy to take a step back and evaluate my reasoning for my thoughts, actions or beliefs. The prayers I have been praying for months have been, God change me and show me areas of my life that need healing, restoration, or need to be removed. In the middle of all the of this, the next 2020 “thing” hits and there is more on my mind and heart with each passing day. And unfortunately, I don’t see an end in sight regardless of what happens next. This world is a hard place to live in. There will always be a fight to fight and a cause to uphold. There will always be political disagreements and beliefs we hold dear. That will not change. So if that won’t change, then what is my purpose in it all? To be the loudest voice? To bring the most people to my cause? What did God say about it? Truly, it’s a great question and one I am hoping to bring light to as I have been working this out in my own life.
There are so many voices today. Each telling everyone why we all must believe like them and act like them. Some say it loudly, some with their silence. Some only share critique and some with encouragement. Each and every cause or political player or world event, has people in their corner. Today, my hope is just to speak to you believers. If you aren’t a believer, I welcome you knowing the message is relevant to you too, but you are sitting in on a family meeting today.
I have been reading in 1 Corinthians lately. The book is written by Paul to the church at Corinth. They were believers from every walk of life. The one thing they had in common was their faith in Jesus Christ. The letter is written because word had gotten back to Paul that there was some serious fighting and disagreements going on inside the church. They were arguing about many things including; which apostle they followed or how to show their faith. Which actions were most reflective of a Christian. They were behaving poorly and walking in sin and justifying it because of their past culture or strong belief. Their fighting was so bad that Paul calls them infants needing milk again because they weren’t mature enough to have solid scriptural food. Then as I began to read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, I saw our world in a fresh new light. This book and this portion of scripture is so vital for us to understand today. We must see it. If we are to walk claiming to be a family of believers we simply can’t ignore this passage any longer!
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free— When we are in Christ, we become one regardless of our race or position, cause or culture. Our unifying factor is Christ. It was no different in the time Paul wrote this. They each had a background. They each had cultures they grew up in. They each had passions and causes that spoke to their hearts. But in Christ they were one. Just like us. Paul goes on the share that a body doesn’t function if it’s made up of only feet or ears, or hands alone. No, a body is made of up many parts, that when put together, can do amazing things.
This is where my conviction started to happen. If I can be transparent with you for a moment, I’ll share my heart. All of these things that have happened in 2020 have raised strong feelings in me. Anger, joy, revulsion, confusion, frustration, indifference. And with each voice that rings out, I have an immediate reaction. Whether good or bad. Mind you, all of these reactions being 90% on the inside. My hubby and family would know my thoughts but I don’t lay my feelings out on social media or stand at the front of multitudes declaring my feelings on a particular subject. This has been an internal struggle. And while I am sharing truth, let me say that these feelings incited in me a desire to do something, an action that I desired to take. It might be choosing to reach out to a person, or avoid a person. Or act in the same way or in an opposite way of another person. These feelings made me want to prove why my way was the right way. And depending on which side of the argument you are on, you might be a friend or an enemy in my mind. But isn’t that exactly what Paul is saying? We don’t come together as believers and look exactly the same. We are different. Our unifying factor is Christ.
The specifics of my conviction was less about which side to be on but how quickly I had allowed our differences to remove you from my “family” or my “body”. God has called me to a specific work. He has plans for me that may or may not be the same work as you. The call to have everyone doing the same thing, leaves all other areas vacant. None of us has unlimited time in a day. Our time is valuable and we have to be accountable to how we use it. If I spend all the time I have in a day doing what you deem important but it’s not what God has called me to do then what would we call that? Being disobedient is sin. I am blatantly walking in sin by leaving what God has for me to do. Your cause may be very important. It might be vital to the safety of children or care of the elderly. It might be noble and worthy of attention. But if that isn’t what God has for me to spend my time on, then I am not walking in the path God has laid out for me.
Now before we start into the “what’s good for you is good for you” or “you do you” talk, let me say this has nothing to do with feeling. I might feel like I need to take up a cause or act towards something, but I am not called to act on feeling. I am called to uphold Christ and to that end I am help accountable. Our sole purpose in life as believers is to share the gospel message with those God has placed around us. In Christ, that is our mission. We are called to make disciples. So if you are called to lead a group, then lead it sharing/living the gospel message with that group. If you are called to minister to you neighbors, do that sharing/living the gospel message. If you are called to be a stay at home loving on your kids, do that all the while sharing/living out that gospel message. It’s not you do you and I’ll do me and we’ll have utopia. It’s being unified in sharing the gospel wherever God has called us. The danger lies when we demand that everyone think like we do or act like we do. They must vote like me, or stand for these specific causes. And like me, if that is the way we act, then I have created my own religion and way to God. I have made my cause or activity the way to Christ. I have now removed your calling and placed my calling on your life. I have not trusted the sovereignty of God but trusted in my voice being heard and obeyed. Does that scare and convict you like it did to me? I set myself up as God by telling the body of Christ they must all be a foot or an ear. They must all use their gifts in the way I deem worthy.
1 Corinthians 13 is famously called the love chapter. Immediately following the passage on the body having many important parts, Paul tells them there is a better way to treat the body of Christ. He goes on to talk about love being the key to using our gift to walk out the journey God has us on. I love the Message version of this chapter. 1 Corinthians 13:3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. I can honestly say this is not how I have acted or thought in the recent past. To be totally truthfully, I rarely think like this. My feelings get in the way far too often. I am a mess without Christ. If John 13:35 says By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Would people say that I am a disciple of Christ by the way I love my Christian family I disagree with? Reading back through 1 Corinthians 13 that I can see that if I truly love body of Christ, then I am less focused on their actions and busy doing what He has called me to do. All the while trusting, that if He called you to that task and me to my task then He is able to bring the gospel message to those around us regardless of it being the same action. We live and share the gospel by the way we love our family and in that love the world see us and knows that we are Christ followers. The evidence is called fruit. We will love like 1 Corinthians 13 and in addition we will exhibit the Fruit of the Spirit: (Galatians 5:12-13) is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Trusting the sovereignty of God is where we get messed up. Trusting that He can speak to both you and to me. He can move us each along the path He has for us. He is sovereign to complete that work in each of us. And He is able to use the situations that He has called us to to bring glory to His name. We have to trust God and then extend grace to each other. I want to be a family member who prays for each one of my family to hear God and know God more deeply. I want to encourage those around me to seek the Lord’s plan and then cheer them on as they follow that plan. If I truly don’t agree, my first response needs to be prayer. Asking God to challenge me first and see if there is anything in me that is demanding they complete the task given to me.
We fight against an enemy that would seek to destroy our family, our body. The enemy knows that if we stood together, in Christ, cheering each other on, praying for each other, encouraging each other, the world would look different. He’s smart enough to know that fighting in the body and in the family will destroy our ability faster than anything the enemy alone can do. We must stop fighting each other. We have to learn to love each other and put the other first. We need to get to a place where we can stop flying off the handle at every word spoken that we don’t agree with. We are called to love the flowering of the truth. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Lord, let it begin with me.
