Upon reading a recent Mother's Day article in which the author stressed his late mother's "intense love" for "Denomination X" to which she belonged (and of which, incidentally, he is an organizational leader), we were reminded of the unsophisticated old timer who, upon being asked his religious affiliation, let it be known in no uncertain terms that he was a Baptist. And, just to make sure that the significance of such identity was fully grasped, he continued, "Yeah, and if you ever hear of John the Methodist, let me know!" (This is not to disparage the Baptists - having, in addition to ministry elsewhere, served three Baptist pastorates ourself.)
Are we sometimes prone to confuse ends with means? Do we ever incline toward distinction between believers that God Himself neither recognizes nor endorses? What we have often failed to recognize - and as strange as it may seem on the surface - is that, even as believers, we are not always immune to that most fundamental of temptations - the practical replacement of God. For example:
Satan's fall was occasioned by his quest for ultimate supremacy: "I will ascent into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will be like the Most High" (Isa. 14:13,14). Adam's subsequent fall was characterized by similar ambition, "You shall be as God" (Gen. 3:5). Throughout history, mankind has been led into the worship of celestial bodies, spirits, idols, dominant personalities, and even self in the human deification quests of various mind science, New Age and other related philosophies. Finally, or course, in seeking to usurp Christ's rightful reign, the coming Antichrist shall "take his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God (II Thess. 2:3,4).
We would, of course, rightly protest that the foregoing does not apply to us. True. Nor would we in any way question the above-mentioned mother's having gone to be with Christ upon departing this life. At the same time, might it be that, even within the realm of professed faith, we are ourselves sometimes unwittingly victimized by an inclination to reversal of order?
Such was an issue with which Paul sought to deal in the Corinthian church. Here, within the Body of Christ itself, a primary problem was that of Christ's having become means to personal self interest, self focus, and self promotion (I Cor. 1:10-13; 3:1-4).
Divine purpose is rather served within the context of Colossians 1:18: "[Christ] is the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything."
Does answer then lie in a renunciation of present fellowship and association; further splintering of the Body of Christ in the form of additional, rivalry driven bodies manifesting the same sectarian spirit; or in wrapping ourselves in a "holy separatism" that serves primarily to create new expressions of an old problem?
The answer is "no." (This, of course, does not apply to acceptance of apostasy - hence our own departure from an organization of former affiliation). It is rather to recognize that when we come to fill our role in serving Christ and loving one another in a reflection of God's acceptance of both them and ourselves, the difficulty will begin resolving itself.
Burl Ratzsch
