THE REAL DIFFERENCE

During my rather long tenure as an editor among a divided religious people I have sought an answer to a perplexing problem: what is the real difference between people? I say real because I am suspicious that the presumed differences are superficial. I belong to a heritage that began as a unity movement, and yet the heirs of that movement are scandalously divided a dozen or more different ways. I say scandalous because it can be nothing less when disciples of Jesus are led to be ugly to each other. Why is it so? Are the differences really theological or doctrinal as they appear to be? Do we go our separate ways, often with an uncharitable attitude, because we differ on methods of evangelizing (societies and sponsoring churches), teaching (literature and Sunday Schools) or corporate worship (organs, multiple cups, etc.) or is it something more basic?

I am not talking about separation as such, for people may be apart and still treat each other with Christian dignity. Nor am I talking about merely seeing things differently, for this is unavoidable among people with any freedom at all. I am referring to that ever-present inclination among us to reject other Christians as equal to ourselves, and this includes those of our own historic heritage, even those in other Churches of Christ. Let’s put it plainly: it is common practice among us to divide into sects that hate each other. If you are an anti or a liberal or a premill or a charismatic, not to name them all, you are held in disdain by not a few among us. How scandalous for Christians to hate each other! But why?

I have for years been an observer (and at one time a participant, I regretfully add) of this kind of behavior. It is clearly a them and us kind of thing. Lines are drawn and motives are impugned. If you are on the wrong side, you can do nothing right; if you are on the right side, you can do nothing wrong (nothing really serious, at least). If you belong to “us”, the best possible interpretation is put upon what you do or say; if you belong to “them”, you are surely up to something even when your conduct appears to be noble.

This “difference” between folk is manifest in sundry ways, and I am interested in what is really going on. Some of our folk go bananas if you start asking questions, while others remain cool no matter what you ask. The bare mention of some people’s names (the controversial souls among us) drive a lot of our folk up the wall, while others are unruffled even if you tell them that one of those people is waiting to see them. Some have all sorts of “keep off the grass” signs distributed through their mind, while others are open to new ideas and experiences. Some are loving and gracious even in the face of cruel criticism, while others are vindictive and discourteous even to the most innocent. Some are pliable and teachable, even child-like, while others are implacable and boorish, even childish.

The real difference?

I am persuaded that we are talking about two different kinds of love, or objects of love: a love for the party on one hand and a love for Jesus on the other. That may sound like oversimplification, but it really isn’t all that simple. We are all motivated by what we love, and this in turn is related to our whole psyche. We all need to feel secure, even if we have to rely on false security. We love that which gives us security, and we tend to both hate and destroy that which threatens it.

I see these same people I have described make dramatic changes. Occasionally one of them will admit that he once hated me, but now he loves me, and he can really say, I love you!, which is of course his victory, not mine. What has really happened? Not that he now agrees with me all that much or that he has made a doctrinal turnaround. He now loves Jesus, and that makes all the difference in the world. When he hated me it was because he considered me a threat to his party and pet doctrines. Now that he loves Jesus rather than the party he can love his sisters and brothers, even cantankerous ones like me. This is the big difference. When one loves the party he must hate anything that gets in its way, for the party, by its very sectarian nature, has to be exactly right.

This difference is apparent enough in scripture. The Jewish hierarchy had no major differences with Jesus in reference to his teaching, for it was not all that different from what the rabbis had always taught. So why did they hate him so intensely? He was not a party man. Moreover he freed people from the hold the Pharisees had over them. The party must control people’s minds, and it must destroy anyone who threatens that control. It wasn’t so much what the Lord taught, but it was the direction that he gave it - to set men free. So the difference, the real difference, between Jesus and the Pharisees is that Jesus loved God and the Pharisees loved their party.

John 12:42-43 gives a clear picture: “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.”

And, believe it, that is the difference between Christians today, far more than doctrinal diversity. We could become a united people in Jesus Christ, loving each other and working together, if it were not for the fact that many love the party more than they love Jesus. It is often a matter of fear, a fear of what the party might do to them. It takes a certain kind of person who has no fear of being put out of the synagogue or kicked out of church. That person has conquered his pride by fixing his eyes upon Jesus, “the author and perfecter of our faith. “ Yes, of course, it hurts to be rejected by our own people, especially if our eyes are fixed other than on Jesus. No party can hurt our pride if our pride is already crucified with Christ, and “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

One of the most sobering truths announced by the prophets of the coming Messiah was that “He was despised and rejected by men” (Isa. 53:3). Few of his disciples seem willing to follow him in this respect. Even his chosen envoys fled when that dark hour came that he was to be crucified. That is an awesome line that reads: They all forsook him and fled (Mk. 15:50). Dare we ask ourselves if we would have done otherwise had we been there? If today we put party or denominational loyalty before Jesus (and those who love Jesus) it is not likely that we would have stood by him then.

The apostle accepts the fact that if a believer is truly a child of the free woman (Sarah) and not of the slave woman (Hagar) she will be persecuted. As he put it in Gal. 4:29: “He who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit.” He adds the foreboding touch: So it is now.

It is a lesson we are slow to learn. All over the country I minister to folk who have been pushed around or kicked out or both. They are always surprised that their own brethren would treat them in such a manner. But we have been amply warned. Just as Ishmael gave Isaac a hard time, so we today, if we are “born according to the Spirit,” will be browbeaten by those who are carnal Christians, and nothing is more carnal than sectarianism.

This big difference is in every church. There are those who are crucified with Christ and who love him with heart, mind, and soul.  [sentence fragment missing]  with them in spirit if not outwardly. “Parties, factions, and divisions,” which are listed in Gal. 5:20 as works of flesh, would cease if we were all like that “remnant” in every church.

But there are also those who choose to be children of Hagar by loving what they have created rather than what Jesus has created. When these find that Sarah’s children are different, they proceed to give them a hard time, and finally drive them out. One young brother, who came to Jesus from the sub-culture of Hippie-dom, told me how he asked his Church of Christ brethren why he had such difficulty being accepted. One was candid enough to tell him, You are different from us. It was a revealing admission.

The party wants them white, middle-class, conforming, and of course dressed right (shaven and with a haircut). Equally important is that one not think, certainly not seriously and critically, and he is not to go around asking a lot of questions. In most churches it spells trouble to be really converted to Jesus. If you love him who first loved us rather than the party, which only uses us, you are likely to have a hard time of it. So it is now!, Paul says. Sectarian Christians always persecute spiritual Christians.

There is good news in all this. Not only that those who keep their eyes on Jesus will gain the victory, but that anyone who is party-minded rather than Christ-minded does not have to remain that way. In that same Gal. 4 Paul refers to the Jerusalem above as our mother. Rather than loving the party one can be adopted by that parent and be free in Christ. What a glorious blessing! Thank God that we don’t have to remain sectarians! --- the Editor