Removing the Mask

The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. -Romans 14:17-19

We all know just how rich and developed Paul's theology is in his letter to the Romans, but when one reads through then entire epistle one can't help but feel that Paul's most immediate concern for that diverse group of believers in the ancient world's most cosmopolitan city is for church unity. Chapter 12's line-of-thinking commences with a short Greek word which most English Bibles translate as "therefore," and seems to be Paul's way of saying, "Now that I've established this rich theological stuff, here's why all that stuff is important." We in the church cannot discard the latter chapters of Romans, though we are often guilty of it.

Now the above quote is from Romans 14, and it caps off Paul's rather striking argument that views on food practices should not divide the Body of Christ. Imagine the shock that it must've been to the Jewish contingency of the church to hear Paul - that self-proclaimed member of the tribe of Benjamin - basically telling them, "I know what Leviticus says, but kosher-smosher! Let's spend more time building one another up rather than tearing each other down."

If I were a Jewish believer in Rome, I would've had to find a way to send a letter back to Paul (who, by the way, hadn't even visited the Roman church to that point) demanding a more satisfactory explanation than chapters 14-15 give. I would've needed more than "make every effort to be a peacemaker in the Body of Christ." That's far too idealistic - naive, really - for me. But such is the call which not only went out to the Jews and Gentiles which worshiped in opposition at Rome, but to the church today as well. Forget denominational fractions, our local churches can't even get past petulant quarrels when all who are involved agree on the consequences of not having a singular focus.

This past Sunday I again witnessed the powerful devastation which occurs when members of the body abandon peace and mutual edification for the sake of individual pride, ego, and comfort. There were no winners - everyone was a loser in this one. Although shock was the initial emotion felt by most people, it is only a matter of time before anger bubbles over and chokes out any momentum which this particular church has been given by the Spirit to save souls and disciple children of God.

Still, there are signs even in this tragic situation that something good and powerful can come about through this experience. But as long as we use our secondary and tertiary differences to mask our dislike of one another (which is the true foundation of the situation mentioned above), the church will never realize her full potential, and the cause of Christ will be weakened by the very people who claim the Name.

Speech seasoned with salt

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:5-6)

Towards the end of his letter to the Colossians, the imprisoned Paul asks the faithful congregation to pray that God would “open a door” for Paul to herald his message of salvation (called the “mystery of Christ”) to the world in a clear, understandable manner. Notice: Paul doesn’t just ask that the door might be supernaturally opened for the message to be preached, but that the preacher of the message might be supernaturally allowed to make the message clear and plain. I think we churchgoers today would be much more likely to pray that our dear Brother Paul might be delivered from the unjust chains of oppression than for his vocabulary when presenting the gospel, but Paul sees the two as equal in their necessity to be brought before the throne of God.

But it doesn’t end at prayer. It never ends at prayer. There has to be a response, an action. Here the action is for the Colossians to be ever-mindful of how their conversations with everyone – regardless of standing in the church – must be continuously “full of grace.” This is more than advice that Paul is giving; this is a command from the Spirit-inspired pages of Scripture.

So what does this have to do with us? I wonder sometimes how we Christians can spend hours and hours cooking up evangelism strategies and outreaches on the one hand and then have anything but gracious conversations in our churches, in our homes, and around our company’s water coolers on the other.

With all due respect to the mid and late 1990s, our nation is right now more divided than it has been in any period since the Civil War. On one extreme we have those who are showing an almost militant devotion to their avarice. On the other extreme we have those who refuse to talk about any groups or individuals of a different ideology without resorting to cheap shots about intellect and childish name-calling. Our nation is mired in an inability to discuss important matters of politics and religion - don't get someone from our ESPN-saturated culture started on sports! - without neck veins being protruded and insults being hurled.

Paul says it shouldn’t be this way with the church. Our mission is just way too important to have our people caught in the mire. These people not only make up the mission field, but they make up the church: liberals and conservatives, Tea Partiers and Big Blue Dots, Alabama and Auburn fan. As counter-cultural as it is, we simply cannot afford to be biting and divisive within our fellowship if we intend to be about the mission of saving souls and brining glory to our God.