Mark van Pletsen continued with our ‘We the Church’ series, by reminding us that we need to come together to not only receive but to share. You cannot do ‘Church’ from home – you need to join a community where can use your gifts and be a part of something bigger than yourself.
We see in Ephesians 2:19 that in the building project of God’s Church and Kingdom, we the people are the bricks! Even with Jesus as the rock of our foundation, the building takes hard labour, especially when there are deep roots in the lives of the building blocks that need to be dug out. To give us a new perspective on people, we need to study James 2:1-8 and 2 Corinthians 5:17, which warns us against showing favouritism. The challenge is not to discriminate against anyone and to treat all people equally, the way God wants us to. John 13 teaches us to love one another, but we can only do that well if we ask ourselves what is in our hearts. Just like we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, we mustn’t assume someone’s story based on what they look like. The truth is that we all carry prejudices based on our experiences and upbringing.
We are all ONE Church, regardless of what our denomination preference is. We shouldn’t care about where people live or what school they went to or what job they do. It doesn’t help the body when we generalise or stereotype people. The Gospel demands a higher standard of how we view and treat people.
We need to uproot all the prejudices that have been planted in ourselves and in our Church. These roots of prejudice are a sign of our love towards each other. Start developing a hate for they and them, for this is not the Gospel, which is inclusive for all.
To follow Jesus’s example, we must love all people. For a Church to represent Jesus, we need to follow the command of Colossians 3:5 and put to death our preferences and prejudices. To help us do this, Mark shared 3 points of the consequences of these evils in the Church:
- Prejudice will cause us to miss Jesus
In John 1:45 we read how even Jesus was prejudiced by coming from Nazareth, even though He was born in Bethlehem. When we have a prejudiced lens over our hearts, like Nathanael had, we will miss out on meeting Jesus. When you hold prejudices against a place, you miss out on the opportunity to meet the person. Be careful of listening to rumours or gossip that will make you lose the potential to meet Jesus. - Prejudice will keep us from our Mission and Mandate
Our mission is to make disciples of ALL nations, not just those we like. In Acts 9:10-19 we read how God turned Saul into Paul, and gave him a vision to be His chosen instrument. He had to have the scales removed from his eyes by Ananias, who was prejudiced against Saul, based on the rumours he had heard about him. The sad truth is that we will always default to our preferences and prejudices, which makes this an obedience issue. To truly love, we have to love both the oppressed and the oppressor. - The Price of Prejudice is too Great
Just like Jonah in his story found in Jonah 4:9-11, when he disobeyed God’s command to go to Ninevah, the consequences were great. God doesn’t care if we hate the people He sends us to. We don’t know the price to pay or what the cost will be, but God challenges us to a higher love, by seeing Jesus in others. This is not possible to do outside of the grace and love of God. Jesus put His whole body on the cross for us, and all He asks for is our hearts, even if they are beaten and bruised.
Be aware of the diversity in your Church, knowing that it is a place of safety, where everyone, regardless of race, colour, country or culture, gets to encounter Jesus, the Master Builder.
This word from Mark demands repentance from us, not to an altar of guilt but to trust God to help us turn away from these barriers in our faith. We need to make our prejudices bow at the altar of God. When we allow God to break our hearts to what breaks His, it will change the way we look and view others.
To be connected to the Church body and want to see lives changed, takes obedience, repentance and genuine love. So let us allow God to uproot our preferences and prejudices, so we can meet the people who are waiting on the other side of our obedience.