When you think of your church we should always reflect on the church Christ wanted for all. The message preached was go further and make disciples of all “nations”. For those of you who might not know this, the word Nations in that day was used in reference to different tribes and cultures. This is something most miss in the Great Commission today. We all are fine with confirming the openness of the New Covenant, selfishly though, because we know without the New Covenant …most of us aren’t Jewish and therefore would not have any hope of being saved. In that moment a needed thing pops up… inclusivity. Now at this moment we need to see us as a part of the kingdom. Thank God and Christ this is what he wanted for us too. However, fast forward to today and what do we have. Church of Christ, Christ fellowship, Catholics, Mormons, Baptist, Seventh day, Pentecostal, and many many more. Today we have gone into Tribalism in the body of Christ. We all swear that the others aren’t saved and yet claim that Only Christ determines that salvation. If that was the case then how could one church claim to be superior to another or claim that salvation is theirs and others are lost? They will paint it to act like this is not what they are saying but they are lying to people and in their hearts they know this to be true if they look plainly and honestly with themselves.
Mark 9:38-41
Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.
Even Christ put a end to the beginning of the tribalism that his Disciples already started to try and form in the above scripture. Why? Because it’s in our nature to find difference or create them to make ourselves feel superior to others. We either know more than others, studied harder than others, prayed longer than others, or just flat out have better church buildings than others:). And yet every single one of the different churches all claim that Christ is the Son of God and their only way to the Father. But this isn’t good enough. Now thanks to the Church of Nicaea and philosopher thinkers that weren’t even Christ followers, we have all kinds of added precepts and concepts placed on top of what the matters in Christ mind for Salvation.
“Who do you say I am?”….And Peter said, “you are the Son of the Living God”. And Christ Church was built on this very foundation ALONE. Not how many times one went to church, what type of building they had church in, not if they prayed to saints, not if they wore the wrong type of clothes, make up, or how many tongues they spoke and most definitely not the tribe they were from or color of their skin.
It is in our nature to protect that which means to the most to us. Yes, we all should protect the church from the wrong person who’s goal is to hurt the body. But we can’t let that thought create a tribalism mentality instead of a Church Body mentality. We need to find what makes us all alike and that is Christ. We all stand on one principle above all else and that is Christ being the Son of the Living God and the Only True and Last Source of our Salvation. We have to start there and rebuild because separated, we are all weak.
Thechurch 