The Great Divide

During the Civil War one of the great tragedies was that families were split between North and South. The spectacle of brother fighting against brother was heart breaking. As I reflect on the current state of the church and, actually, it can probably be said it's been this way for hundreds of years, the fracturing into denominations has some very personal impact.

It's an ugly thing when followers of Christ attack other followers of Christ. It makes no sense and must absolutely delight Satan to see the body of Christ at odds with itself. Both across denominations and within denominations the rancor and bitterness repulses people who are literally going to hell apart from Jesus Christ. But worse than that is when the divisions split families.

My dear departed mother-in-law and father-in-law attended separate churches for many years. For all the years I knew them the exercise of their faith took them away from each other rather than toward each other. Thankfully they didn't fight over this...as far as I know...but they certainly weren't united. Worse than that are families where everyone is Christian but attending different churches and that causes conflict and anger. I've experienced that kind of pain up close and personal and can tell you it tears families up.

On the other hand, I've worked for the past five years with an organization that brings churches of all denominations together for a week at a time to provide help and hope to people in need. For those single weeks I've seen Christians lay aside the need to champion their particular doctrinal view, come alongside other believers and change lives. It's a beautiful thing. When we can work from the base truth that we are followers of Christ who believe he is our Lord and Savior so much positive stuff happens. In Biblical terms, we bear good fruit.

If you've read my blog you know that I can sometimes be a Pollyanna about the whole body of Christ getting along. So, I want to acknowledge here that I don't expect for every Christian to link arms and sing kum-ba-yah. There are important issues that divide us and must be discussed in the appropriate places. There are certain things we shouldn't be doing together because we can't agree. Things like communion and baptism are best done with others who are in full agreement with each other about what those things mean. It is important that we debate vigorously the proper interpretation of scripture, how to interact with culture, proper expressions of doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with our God as we're called to do by the Prophet Micah. But differences of opinion should not keep us from loving each other and finding ways to work together for the sake of all those who don't know Christ. The divide between those who claim Christ and will all be in heaven by faith is not so great as the divide between them and those who face eternity separated from God in hell. Let's get our priorities straight.