Are We One?

Dec 15, 2016

Not all of my posts will be based on what I am reading in the bible at the moment,  but this one is.  I read through John 17 today and my heart broke.  To see Jesus’s heart for his people and the church really hit me in a way that it never has before.  What have we become?  When I say “we”  I don’t just mean christians or people that profess Christ,  but I mostly mean the church.  By the church of course I do not necessarily mean the specific building that we met on Sundays and Wednesdays,  but the holistic church that christ intended for us to be as a body of believers.

“I do not pray for these alone, but as for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be as one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they ask nay be on in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent Me, and have loved them as You love Me.”

As much as I would like to disagree with myself I do believe that the overarching thing in the western church is devision,  we are not only divided by denomination but also by age and opinion.  I have waited a lot of my time thinking if this is what God really intended the church to be.  A cooperate structure that runs off the backs and finances of the congregants,  but I have since realized that it is what we are and it is not going to change,  so what do we do about it?  Don’t get me wrong I do feel like the good in the church outweighs the bad,  but that doesn't necessarily mean that it justifies it.  I grew up being taught that “we are all people and people are imperfect”….yes I agree with that,  but then don’t try to act perfect or hide that reality.  What if we as a church body would be a little more transparent with each other? not trying to shock everybody by cussing from the stage or getting into that reactive way of teaching,  but just being open and honest with who we are and what we struggle with.

Did God really intend for there to be a church on every corner that is teaching a different recipe for the same outcome?  I don't know…but what I do know is that Jesus’s words were that we “would be perfect in one” no matter what the theological or systematic differences are in the church as a whole. 

I heard somebody the other day describe their church as “complimentarian” and he described it as all the people in the church no matter what sex or age complimenting each other in the ultimate goal to let the world know who Christ is.  The church has become a members only club that a majority of people attend a few days a week and look for their needs to be satisfied…that is definitely not what Jesus intended for it to be.