Get Your Pretense On!

68 • Get Your Pretense On!

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ~ Galatians 4.6 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ~ 1 John 3.1 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, [10] and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” ~ Revelation 5.9-10 These and other texts clearly establish the deep, spiritual connection that each believer shares with all others, despite race, background, culture, age, or place. And this connection has numberless implications for the way in which we both perceive and treat believers who are different from ourselves. As I tell believers who are dramatically unlike myself, “ I am the proverbial brother that your daddy never told you about!” In Christ, there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, Barbarian, sophisticated upper class folk, slave or free person – in the church, Christ is all and in all (Col. 3.11). Unfortunately today, many believers have a functional view of church, that is, merely a place where you can be baptized, married, or be given a nice memorial service, in other words, where you are hatched , matched , and dispatched ! And, to be perfectly honest, many congregations are living with petty disputes, saturated in the tiniest things while ignoring the weighty issues of the Kingdom. As one commentator said: “The Church is like Noah’s ark: if it weren’t for the storm outside you couldn’t stand the stink inside!”