Divided

I think at the Judgment many pastors and church-attenders are going to be terribly shocked that this life was not at all about being a Lutheran, or a Presbyterian, or a Catholic, or a Pentecostal, or ‘whatever.’

Instead, this life was meant to be all about – ONLY about – being a Christian. It was only about following Jesus to the best of our honest, open-hearted, and humble understanding of what Scriptures would have us believe and what we as Christians should do. Life was all about following Jesus, personally recognizing that “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13)

Don’t you wish the Church, which – according to St Paul is the Body of Christ – don’t you wish the Church, the ‘ekklesia’ (which means, “the called-out ones’ called from the worldly culture) – don’t you wish those in the pews and the pulpits would all stop saying the 21st century equivalent of “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas, (Peter)” and “I of Christ”? (1 Corinthians 1:12)

I surely do.

What the great apostle further wrote to the Church at Corinth – do you not think he would also write to us? “Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:13)

How can we ever hope to woo the ungodly to Christ unless they see how much we ALL love one another? How can we invite the unbeliever into the Church when the church is so fractured?

Christian! Satan knows very well the principle of which Jesus spoke: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (See Matthew 12:25)

Read it again: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Are we so blind that we cannot see what Satan has done and continues to do to the Body of Christ? He has us so focused on our group label that he has nearly unfettered freedom to steal, kill, and destroy.

Christian! Whatever is your ‘group’ – Wake up!