What if the Church is found “in between”? A few weeks ago, I wrote:
It is such a confusing time. You find people coming from the left and people coming from the right, politically, accusing the other side of the very exact thing.
“They are liars. They want power, and they will do anything to get it. Look at all of their wrong choices. They don’t care about you!”
Now, here is one thing I can say without a doubt. The Church is not 100% democrat nor is it 100% republican.
We’ve spent too much time trying to fit the Church into a category, instead of focusing on living in God’s Kingdom now.
What do we know about God’s Kingdom?
We know His Kingdom is filled with Christians who are loving as Jesus loves. This is what He calls us to do. Jesus makes it possible for us to be adopted into God’s family as His sons and daughters. We are transformed, given the gift of new life.
In order to love as Jesus loves, we need to truly know the depth of the gift we have been given. We go from being seen by God as His enemies, to loving members in His family. We are to extend this same grace and love to those around us.
It makes you wonder why more and more people aren’t running towards the Church, wanting to know this love. I also shared this a few weeks ago,
You unfaithful people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world's friend becomes God's enemy. (James 4:4, CEB)
Other translations make it even more clear, using “adulterous people” instead of a little softer, “unfaithful people.” Being Christian means we will not love the world more than God.
We know the tendency of the world we live in is to oppose the Church, to be against the Church. There should be no pressure for the Church to go out of her way to be loved by the world.
We may ask, if we are loving as Jesus loves, loving the people around us, shouldn’t they love us too?
Consider what Paul writes.
Don’t fool yourself. If some of you think they are worldly-wise, then they should become foolish so that they can become wise. This world’s wisdom is foolishness to God. (1 Cor 3:18-19a, CEB)
All I am saying is we can be loving perfectly as Jesus calls us to love and the world will very likely hate us. Now, I do not believe we are fully living this out. So it raises these questions for me, and I offer them to you to consider.
Where have we, the Church, become too wise? Where, dare we say, should the Church become foolish?
This brings us back to the political spectrum mentioned above. Our goal is to not fully align with the world, to be loved by the world. Although, it’s clear from Jesus, our goal is also not to force people to live a certain way. His desire is for us to follow Him from our heart, because we choose to and want to follow Him.
Is the Kingdom of God somewhere in between? Actually, I’m more and more convinced it’s something completely different, something even better.
Blessings,
Pastor Matt