"Pakistan and India have spent so much time disputing their borders in Kashmir that they don't have the wherewithal to learn how to operate as neighbors. If they would learn to operate as neighbors, they would have the relationship with which to resolve the disputed borders." - Yours truly, after reading an article in Time magazine yesterday on the issue
"Love your neighbor as yourself." - Jesus, when summarizing the point of all of God's laws
"Who is my neighbor?" - a listener of Jesus, asking the fair and obvious next question.
"Everyone." - My summary of Jesus' answer to that listener
If a group of people in Zimbabwe are feeding the widows and orphans of their nation, preaching the name of Jesus Christ, and then bowing down to Allah 5 times a day in the direction of Mecca for prayer...are they Christian's or not?
If a group of people in Nepal are giving to the poor and needy, living and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and hanging up prayer flags daily to pray to the Hindu god Shiva...are they Christian's or not?
If a group of people in China are spreading the message of Jesus Christ house to house, depending on God in prayer, but do not sing songs to God in their worship gatherings...are they Christian's or not?
If a group of people in Egypt live perfectly moral and upright lives, and do everything they can find in the Bible what the first century church did during their worship gatherings, and are careful to do nothing more or less, and do so faithfully, but never speak of Jesus Christ to anyone but each other...are they Christian's or not?
If a group of people in Amarillo meet weekly in order to share each other's stories for purpose of knowing one another deeply enough to take off the masks and help each other become more like Christ, but they never sing at their gatherings, take the Lord's supper, and sometimes they don't even pray...are they Christian's or not?
"Who is my brother?" is one of the titles of a book written by a wonderful man in the fellowship of Churches that I call home. The title articulates a question that has dominated the minds of my "tribe" of Christ followers (and others as well) for many, many decades. It seems to me that we have "disputed our borders" with such zeal and commitment that we have an undeveloped (at least underdeveloped) capacity for being neighbors.
I'm totally done with that, in all honesty. Maybe a better way to say it, I'm free from all that.
I call all human beings my brothers and sisters. I spend zero time trying to treat anyone as anything other than family (yes, in Christ). Every human I meet is at a remarkably different level of awareness about our oneness in Christ, and this affects greatly how they live, how they respond to my love and acceptance, and what the parameters of our relationship ends up looking like practically in the day to day.
I love them all the way I want to be loved. Looking for the good and true in them, finding our common ground there (no matter how small or hidden, it is there), enjoying the fellowship that comes from that, and then letting our differences be explored by each other as we live and pursue life to the full.
The questions "Are they Christian's or not" or "Who is my brother?" -- questions that have been the subject of countless debates, tens of thousands of hours of back-breaking Bible study, the source of an embarrassingly large amount of disunity and division among well-intentioned Christ followers -- as it turns out, are questions whose answers are COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY TO KNOW and USELESS in following Christ, in sharing Christ, and in ushering in the Kingdom of Christ.
Who knew?
We can debate this all we want (and I have within me more zealously than I ever with another human being), but I have lived both lives. And I can tell you this - the life I lived that thought it necessary to distinguish between "Christian or not" left me in the company of Christians debating it. The life I now live in which I spend zero time figuring that out, and all my time loving all people as brothers and sisters in Christ, leaves me meeting lost people (in and outside the church) who are VOLUNTEERING to learn the message of Christ. Seriously, there are some weeks that I meet a new a person who is looking for life every day. I'm not exaggerating.
And I'll tell ya...the Bible's message starts really jumping out at me when I live this way. It is humbling. It is lively. It is the good fight. It is grace.
So, my call of the day to the world of Christians - bypass all unnecessary questions and ask the one that will put you in alignment with the God of the Universe, who's agenda is to break into the this world of people and rescue their hearts from darkness (which is very real) and bring them into light (which is also very real) - ask the question, "Who am I to love as a brother today?"
11 comments:
Brother, amen and amen. You spoke what I have been feeling and have not articulated very well. What I love about this is that it frees me to love at all times, it doesn't matter what state the other person is in. Just frees me to love all. Jesus did that all the time, from city to city. Touched the untouchable, loved the unloveable, brought hope to the hopeless and peace to those who found themselves at war with others or themselves. Thank you for the encouragement to live this way my brother.
Dude, I hit the button before I left my name on the comment.
wow... well said! great analogy about our fellowship (and most 'churches') and the Pakistani/Indian situation! very liberating indeed!
One of the great "change agents" said it well, "Where ever God has a child I have a brother". I'm good with that.
I decided long ago to treat every person who claims Jesus as my brother or sister, to love them the best I can and allow God to sort them out.
My sincere hope is that there will be more people in heaven than I think there will be. I do know this much. God loves sinners more than I do and He wants them to be saved more than I do, and He has done something about it.
The Bible says plainly, "In Adam all die" and "In Christ all live". How many are included in that all is God's perogative alone. He is God and I'm not. My job is to live out His life, to love with His love, and to make Him known. The results of that are out of my hands and boy am I glad.
Royce
Brian
do you think there is a difference between loving someone as Christ loved and viewing them as a brother or sister in Christ? Even in your post you said something about lost people.
Great post brother! I remember when "Who is My Brother" was the hot book in our tribe. I'll never forget what Don Mclaughlin said during that time: "The question is NOT 'who is my brother?', the question IS 'who is my Father?' !!! If Donnie had not already done so, he won me over that day.
You won me over a LONG time ago! :)
Keep BRINGING it!!
DU
I love the spirit in which this essay is written...and it resonates with me in so many ways...
you say you are 'totally done' with asking the 'wrong question: who is my brother?' and I am so 'there' with you!
but then you ask that very question (rhetorically, I get it) about a half dozen times...
I agree 100% we have GOT to stop asking that question as a 'litmus test of fellowship', or as some sort of qualifier for 'who's in and who's not'...
and we are called to scatter the seed... and allow Him to 'use His sharp sword' to convince and convict and 'provide the increase' (apologies for mixing verses)
but I can't help but answer your rhetorical question, because I (respectfully) the 'setup' of the question is flawed (though I'm not sure the answer is relevant to how we are to treat each other...)
"Are they Christians?" is the question you ask... but you ask it in each case right after you list what this person or this group is DOING.
My only comment would be that the 'living' and 'sharing' and 'helping' and 'feeding' that these folks are doing is, hopefully, their response to the free Gift God gave on the cross... and NOT some checklist of 'works' from which they must choose so they can be 'worthy' of Salvation.
Are they a Christian? Well, the answer (I believe and hope and pray it is supported by His Word) is simple:
if you believe Jesus is God's Son (God became man) who came to the earth and lived among us and died for your sins and left an empty tomb to arise on the 3rd day and return to Heaven... and that He will return to gather His own - those who accept His gift - to live there with Him forever someday...
then you're a Christian... but only by virtue of that gift... NOT by virtue of all the people you helped or all the praise songs you led or folks you shared with...
The pictures you paint in your essay are indeed what Christians should look like...
ok, now I'm rambling... apologies!
I know this: I, like you, am done trying to be the decider of 'who's in and who's not'... I just wanna share Jesus. period
Ray - Your question exposes that I most certainly have broadened what I mean by viewing someone as a brother in Christ from what Christians traditionally understand that to mean. What I intend to communicate is that I believe we are all children of God no matter where we stand with Christ, and I use that truth as my basis for seeing and treating everyone as a brother or sister, no matter what their standing is in Christ. So, properly understood in that light, my answer to your very good question is no, I do not see a difference. And when I used the term "lost people," I meant lost in the most practical sense of the word...ie: people who aren't enjoying the most abundant life that Christ promises...and these kind of lost people exist within and outside of our traditional understanding of "lost people" (ie: people who we judge aren't going to heaven when they die).
Tim - You wrote <<"Are they Christians?" is the question you ask... but you ask it in each case right after you list what this person or this group is DOING.>>
Exactly. I purposely used cases with people practicing a combination of outward practices, one set being stuff that Christians would judge as "Christian" and "Biblical" and the other set as stuff that Christians would judge as "non-Christian" and "Unbiblical" to expose exactly what you are pointing out. It would be hard work, and full time work, if I had to sit down and figure out if each set of people are or are not my brothers. And I am trying to expose, or suggest, that that work is completely unnecessary (and can even hinder my efforts) for me to love them and share the message of Christ effectively.
Trying to balance the truth that "Man looks at outward appearances, but God looks at the heart" with "Faith without works is dead" is a tension that we live with...and I am showing where I have landed (at least thus far in my life) as I navigate that tension.
Brian, I could write a long comment on why I agree with your new thinking on the subject, but I will just quote Jesus in a very short statement.
Mt:10:32: Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
sounds pretty simple, don't it?
lem
After a recent article at New Wineskins a commenter posted: "But how do you know who God has received so that you can embrace them if you do not hold them to the standard of obedience God demanded of the early Christians? (Acts 2:38,41; Acts 8:12; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-12)"
And I responded:
"... why not assume that they are fellow sinners who can only be saved by God's grace and love them as God loves them and let Him worry about who's in and who's out?
Because I can't see much of a brotherhood relationship starting out by holding each other up to standards when none of us can live up to the standard of Jesus Christ.
If we disagree later, we can discuss the differences ... once there's a relationship of love and mutual respect and equality in each other's sight as well as God's. Don't you think?"
One of my favorite phrases when dealing with this issue has been "brothers in error." Aren't we all brothers in error? Of course not, I'm sinless, aren't you?
There is a great freedom to be found in not playing God's police and simply trying to live as Christ.
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