Monday, June 21, 2010

June 21, 2010

"My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism." James 2:1
A local church is all about God and all about people. A local church exists to connect people with God and with each other. To do that, there must be a clear understanding of what those relationships look like.
You can be sure that the reason James wrote this admonition is because these Christians did not have a clear understanding of what believers need to do to facilitate those connections.
First, I want to point out that James says not to "show" favoritism. That also acknowledges that human nature does favor some people or some groups over others. That is honest! That is real! Having favorites is what it is - natural. But as believers we are not given to the natural we are given to the supernatural. It is okay to have favorites but through the grace and power of Jesus we don't allow our prejudiced influence how we interact with people in the church.
Second, I believe God sees people in two basic groups, those who have received Jesus as Savior and those who haven't. In my experience, that is how healthy local churches view people. Human nature wants to group people by race or status or gender, God's nature just sees individual from various backgrounds, ethnic groups and economic classes as those who are saved and those who are lost.
Obviously, you have different exprectations and approaches to each group. You treat believers differently than you do non-believers. You expect believers to act as though they know Christ and are led by His Spirit. Unbelievers are not going to do that. Unhealthy churches tend to confuse those things, they make unrealistic demands of unbelievers and allow believers to get away with careless living.
This is how I want Fred Wes to view people. I want us to live in unity with other believers and with urgency toward those who are spiritually lost. That is a worthy goal - unity and urgency! Let's love God together, let's love each other in God and in unity let's focus that love on lost people that God has placed in our lives!
You have prejudices. So do I. But what we do with those makes ALL the difference between healthy churches and unhealthy churches.