The Bond of Salvation

 "There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus."
- Galations 3: 28

We live in a divided world.  This should be no surprise to us, as we are broken people.  Each of us, no matter where we are in our lives, is broken.  The Bible teaches that we have all sinned and fallen short of God.  The evidence of that is all around us and in us.  Broken people lead to broken relationships, families, nations, and a broken world.  

People have tried to fix the world since the beginning of time, but none have succeeded.  We are still broken, and as long as we look only to others and to ourselves to mend the world, it will continue to be broken.  The truth is that there is only one thing in the world that can fix us.  Some may mock me for saying this or curse me for saying there is only one truth, but truth is not something that caves to anger.  Truth is simply what it is, and it is not ours to define.

God sent his son to Earth to fix us.  Those of us who believe this truth are fixed in the eyes of God, and we will be fully restored in the world to come.  It is a truth that should bind all believers together.  It is the one truth that should override all differences.  Though we may not see every issue the same, we must come together as brothers and sisters in Christ.  We must unite in the one thing that matters more than all else.  Division is the way of the world.  The Bible tells us to live in peace with each other as much as we can, but we live in a world that is becoming more and more hostile toward our beliefs.  If we are walking the word, complete peace with the world may not always be possible.  We should live at peace with other believers, however, as there is no conflict in this world that is greater than the bond of salvation.

We must come together and unite the church.  The world is full of people who need a savior, and we are commissioned by Christ to bring the gospel to the nations.  When we let our differences fracture the church, that mission is compromised.  Our petty differences are doing more than splitting denominations and families.  It is disabling us as a witness.  It is pushing people away from the truth.  This is not a minor flaw, but one that leads us to missed opportunities to bring people to the cross.  We need to do better.  Eternities are in the balance.

The church is made up of people of different backgrounds, races, genders, and schools of thought.  Such differences are real, but we are fools if we let those differences outweigh the truth that binds us together.  Jesus has brought us together because he loves us.  We all know that we are broken, and we all know that the blood of Jesus is what reconciles us to God.  We all should know that we are no better than each other, and that we are all in this together.

I will end this with the Bible verse that started it, with some additions.

There is no longer
Jew or Gentile,
slave or free,
male and female,
Republican or Democrat,
conservative or liberal,
white or black,
tall or short,
introverted or extroverted,
blue eyes or brown eyes,
meat eaters or vegetarians,
Yankee fan or Red Sox fan,
cat people or dog people,
Apple user or Android user,
pineapple-on-pizza people or no-pineapple-on-pizza people.
For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Assuming The Worst

We have a lot of problems in our world today.  We are a broken people in a divided society. I'm not going to rehash each specific issue here, but I do want to consider that division.  One of the things that should be great about this world is its diversity.  We are all members of different demographic groups.  Some are determined by choice, others are not.  Most of these groups, including the ones we choose, are not moral or immoral by default.  However, most of these groups are given bad reputations by a small subset of that group.  Each of these groups is made up of broken people, and broken people sometimes make bad decisions or do things that are immoral.  None of us, however, want to be judged solely based on the worst parts of the groups we are a part of.  While we are all broken, most of us are not evil.  Most of us do not want to do wrong to others.  Most of us are in the same boat: broken, yes, but generally wanting good for the world.  

What I see in the world, however, is this: many people assume the worst about the groups they are not a part of, while brushing off and excusing the worst parts of the groups we are a part of.  We nitpick the flaws in other groups and ignore the flaws in our own.  We get defensive and angry when other people lump us in with the worst parts of our groups, and yet we turn around and do the same to them.  We assume the truth behind court cases and people's intentions because of the groups certain people are a part of.  

We need to stop drawing conclusions based solely on people's demographic groups. We are not simply a list of attributes; we are a society of unique individuals who are not limited in personal scope by the groups that have been defined for us or by us.  Every person in a group is not the same, and we can differ greatly from the other members in our groups based on our personalities, life experiences, decisions, and thought processes.  We need to stop assuming things based on the groups a certain person is a member of.  We need to calm down, slow down, and carefully consider the facts in every situation.  We need to think about the unique circumstances for every individual and instance.  We need to embrace empathy and stop seeing every other person and situation through our own eyes and our own situation.  Our thoughts and experiences do not define the thoughts and experiences of every other person.  We need to take a step back from ourselves and stop assuming the worst of everybody different from ourselves in one of the many ways that each of us is different from every other person in the world.  

We need to humble ourselves and admit that we are each broken and no better than one another.  We need to admit our own shortcomings while not accentuating or exaggerating the faults of others.  We need to stop assuming the best of ourselves and assuming the worst of others.  We need to be able to step back, consider the facts, and rationally discuss those facts.  If we continue to assume the worst about each other, we will never be able to come together.  We will always be divided.