Divide and conquer.  I am sure you have heard the term.  It is a term for a tactic that is used to defeat an enemy.  The concept is that if you can successfully cause a group of enemies to turn on each other it is easy to sweep in and conquer them.  It is the oldest battle tactic of all.  The enemy used it in the beginning to divide the created from the creator and it has been used ever since.  And very successfully.

One aspect of using this tactic successfully is to deceive your enemy in a way that they do not always see the division.  Until it is too late.  Our adversary has continued to use this tactic since that first epic division with great results.  There are many that have entered into an eternity without God because of it.

I am following a lot of discussions and situations in the body of Christ that are causing dissension, distrust, confusion, and anger between the participants.  It seems most are not even aware or concerned with the harm that is being done or how the arguments over things that are either not essential to the mission or just blatantly wrong are helping to divide us.  When I try to determine essentials as it concerns the Gospel I actually see it as rather simple.

Joh 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Mat 22:37-40  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Mat 28:19  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

These three things are the essentials.  These three are all we really need to know to stay on mission.  The rest of the bible can be seen as instruction on understanding and learning to apply these three.

God loved us so much He was willing to become one of us in the person of Jesus so He could rescue us from the clutches of the enemy that we had allowed to enslave us, then He instructs us to love Him and each other, and finally to go and tell all about this great love of His and to show them how to spread it also.  So the real essential is the mission of spreading love.  And nothing else.

I see more dissension being sown than love being spread as I look at the body of Christ.  One of my main objections to God even existing for most of my life was that I saw very little love, hardly any sacrifice, and only token agreement within Christianity.  This is a historical and a present reality even now.  I am a part of the body now and still see the same things.

Luther, Calvin, Arminius; no agreement there.  Spurgeon, Moody, Wesley, Finney; no agreement there.  Piper, Wright, Pinnock, Conn, Spong; no agreement there.  Baptist, Episcopalian, Catholic, Pentecostal; no agreement there.  COG member and another COG member; no agreement there.  Not only is this sad, not only is this divisive, this is dangerous.  Hatred is being spread, intolerance is being observed and souls are being lost.  The mission is not being done because we are too busy telling the other how wrong they are.  We must wake up to the tactics of enemy that is walking among us.

The arguments and the view of essentials in my own denomination and even my own church are very disconcerting to me.  Tongues as initial evidence, alcohol consumption, missional or Pentecostal, and a misplacement of love are just a few areas where lines are being drawn and the enemy sits back laughing while watching us pound on each other.  I am sorry but I can’t even find the scripture where Jesus spoke in tongues, I can show you where He drank wine, His focus was wholly missional and relational, and He point blank told us who to love.  Take notice where our love is supposed to be applied.  It is to persons and not things.

Instead I am reading declarations of steadfast love for a denomination while those same advance no attitudes of love or outreach for the ones outside the Kingdom.  In fact, some of the things they are arguing against in their unyielding traditional, denominational defenses cause those we should be reaching from even giving us a chance to spread the love we are supposed to be spreading.

The Church of God is an institution, an organization, a denomination; and I do not love it.  I love the people in it.  I also love the people in the Assemblies of God, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Catholics, the Muslims, the Hindus, and the list goes on and on to include even the agnostics and atheists.

We have people that won’t accept anything but the style of preacher that they want, the music that they want to hear, the order and method of service they grew up with, and even the times the services must be done.  When are we going to wake up to the machinations of our enemy?  When are we going to realize the necessity of unity even if it means sacrifice?  When are we going to discern our own self-centeredness?  When are we going to apply our misplaced love appropriately?

If the lost in my community want to sing reggae, country spirituals and this will keep them in church long enough to become disciples, then shouldn’t we be willing to throw out the hymnals and praise choruses?  If the lost in my community want to sit on couches with the lights turned down a notch and have a spiritual discussion instead of a pulpit pounding, corn shucking, belt jerking, spittle spewing preacher yelling at them, then shouldn’t we be willing to give it a try?

Mat 28:19  Go therefore to church, sit on the pews, sing only what you like, keep a pastor and stand behind him only if he preaches to you and only if he does it the way you want him to, and do not in any way suffer the person that does not agree with you, in the name of (insert your own name). (Self-centered interpretation)

This is how we read this commandment today for the most part.  Isn’t it time we went to war, got back on mission, and at least tried to do what Jesus said?  It will take sacrifice.  But He sacrificed Himself so you could sit there on that pew and be wrong.

What if that lost person that won’t come to church because of your self-centered requirements is your grandchild?  Will you sacrifice then?

I love you all (and hope you can still love me)

Tags: atheist, Body of Christ, Calvin, catholics, Christianity, Church, Church of God, Creator, dissension, Enemy, eternal life, Eternity, Holy Spirit, Love, muslim, Pentecost, piper, Self