When Opposites Attract

A Raisinet Revelation . . .

“…every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.”
Revelation 14:6, KJV

Raisinets are the absolute best candy. There is no room for debate.
As a matter of fact, I defy you to find me a better one. You can’t. Raisinets have chocolate and they have raisins. It is culinary perfection.

My family disagrees.

In fact, if I bring home a box of Raisinets, I can leave it completely unguarded. No hiding place. No secret stash. No warning label. They will still be there when I return because I am apparently the only person in my house with good taste in candy. Try as I might, I cannot convince these people that they are missing out!

It is hard to get any group of people to agree on anything. That is one reason doing church can be so difficult.

We join the body of Christ seeing the world differently. We come from different families, cultures, generations, experiences, personalities, and perspectives. We have different gifts. We prefer different music. We solve problems differently. Then God brings all of us into one community and tells us to move in the same direction.

How exactly is that supposed to work? How do we make sure we all arrive at the same heaven without completely tearing each other apart on the way?

 

It helps to understand what unity really is.

When we think of unity, what we often describe looks less like a community of people with free will and more like “The Stepford Wives.” Everyone is pleasant, compliant, polished, predictable, and conformed. We all do the same things, enjoy the same hobbies, listen to the same music, dress the same way, and even wear our hair the same way. But the Bible never confuses brainwashing with conversion.

Rather than erasing individuality or forbidding people to think for themselves, as Orwell imagined in 1984, Paul invites us to see the church as the body of Christ. Different roles. Different functions. Different abilities. Different personalities. Yet one body, moving toward one purpose: the glory of God.

Biblical unity does not require us to become identical. It calls us to become connected.
This idea directly opposes the notion that we have to be clones in order to be Christians.
That does not mean beliefs do not matter. There are fundamental convictions that unite us as the body of Christ. If you do not believe we are called to honor God’s Sabbath, for example, you are going to be one day late for worship every week. That could cause a problem.
But conviction and conformity are not the same thing.

The canopy of God’s kingdom is wide enough to include people who are still growing, learning, questioning, and becoming convinced. We do not have to agree on every minor point, live out our faith in exactly the same way, sing the same songs, dress alike, or make every worship service the same length in order to belong to the body of Christ.

In fact, I believe God planned for difference. He intended different temperaments, backgrounds, languages, cultures, gifts, and perspectives to live together under the lordship of Jesus. The church should be a preview of the kingdom John saw, populated by people from “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.”
The problem is that human beings have a stubborn habit of believing “mine is better than yours.”

Our food is better. Our traditions are better. Our language is better. Our generation understood church better. Our way of worshiping is better. Naturally, the only reason you disagree is that you have not been properly informed. Once you learn enough, surely you will come around and become more like us.

While everybody is busy trying to prove that theirs is best, Christ is offering us something better.

Daniel 2 describes a great image representing successive earthly kingdoms. Babylon rises. Medo-Persia follows. Greece comes next. Rome takes its place. Each kingdom has its moment. Each appears impressive. Each eventually passes away.

Then a stone, representing God’s kingdom, strikes the image and replaces everything that came before it.
That is the humbling lesson.

No human kingdom gets the last word. No culture gets the last word. No tradition, generation, language, political system, or personal preference gets the last word.
God gets the last word and His is the Word that matters most. And that Word calls us together as a committed community that brings all we are to the table and submits everything we’ve been given to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

When we first purchased our home, I put together a toolbox for projects around the house. I did not buy twelve hammers. I needed a hammer, but I also needed screwdrivers, pliers, a wrench, a tape measure, and plenty of other tools. They were different because the work required different things.The church is much the same.

God does not need twelve hammers. He has intentionally gathered people who think differently, see differently, speak differently, and serve differently. Our differences do not have to weaken the church. Submitted to Christ, they can strengthen it.

Unity is not everyone becoming the same.
Unity is different people belonging to the same Christ, serving the same kingdom, and learning to love one another along the way.
Even the people who do not like Raisinets.