Unification

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

The verses above are familiar to anyone who has thought about unity in the church. Paul tells us we should be unified. That part everyone agrees upon.

But how does he think we should be unified? Like a body! A body with lots of different parts and sometimes contrary goals, but a body nonetheless unified in suffering and in success.

Paul compares the parts of the body to people with different roles within the church, but I believe this metaphor can be applied more widely.

All of the different denominations, can be seen as different body parts. Because of their different capabilities and positions, they see the world in different ways. And this is valuable,

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 

It is good to have different churches with different goals and different points of view. But we should never lose site of the fact that we are all part of the same church. We should love and honor and support each other even as we disagree.

A lofty goal, but over and over again the Bible stresses love over division and unity within diversity. To be God's people, we must journey towards this ideal.

The journey

What is more important, the beliefs you hold, or the journey of coming to a deeper understanding?


We should focus on the journey and God's ability to lead us along the path we need to be led along. Many of the things I believe about God, Jesus, eternity, salvation, and the universe are certainly wrong. I plan to change my mind many times before I die. It would be a pity if my salvation depended on whether I died at just the right time.


Some Christians say that I must hold the right beliefs to be saved. But specific beliefs do not matter. Getting into heaven is not a matter of passing an exam. There are no essay questions or scantron sheets. What matters is that we go on the challenging journey that grows our soul towards God. 


The challenge of the journey is, perhaps, what drives people into the error of believing in the answers instead of the journey. It is easy to say "I have the right beliefs, now I am done." It is hard to say, "Never in this earthly life will I be the person God wants me to be, but the only way for me to become that person is to continue my struggle."


I will continue to struggle and to grasp the journey, wherever God may lead me.

With God every day

I want to live a life where I am truly with God every day. I try to reach out to God everyday, but it's rare that I feel that I can see God's revelation in the world around me. So often I let me stress and anger block my vision. More often, I am overwhelmed by life's little distractions.

Lord, I pray that I may see the many ways you answer me and reach out to me everywhere, everyday.

Love in the early church

Jonathan at Galatians 2:10 has a great post about the importance of love to the early church. He introduces his quotes about love by saying,

I knew that the command to love our enemies was clearly stated in the gospels and New Testament epistles. But I didn't realize how important it was to the early church. Recently, when I began reading the earliest documents of the Christian church, I came to see that loving our enemies was pivotal. Not only was it taught in church documents, sermons, and letters, but the visible fruit of Christian love for their enemies was a major point that Christians made when defending their faith to non-Christians.

The early church fathers who he goes on to quote were members of a minority religion. They were sometimes considered atheists because they did not believe in the gods that most people believed in. They were persecuted, often to death.

Yet they preached a message of love. They risked their lives because they believed that message of love so deeply. When Bishop Polycarp says,

Pray also for emperors and magistrates and rulers, and for those who persecute and hate you, and for the enemies of the cross, that your fruit may be manifest in all, so that you may be perfected in him.

He is saying this in a context where the persecution and hatred is much more real than any experienced in the affluent, Christian majority united states.

These early church leaders understood that it was not right beliefs that set Christians apart. When they were writing, the so-called right beliefs we take for granted were still being formed. The early church fathers realized that living a life of love that can only be explained by the uplifting power of God in our lives was the distinguishing mark of a Christian. Love for their enemies, love for their persecutors, love for those that would take away everything they held precious, that is what proved the power of God.

It is no wonder that Christianity is so easily dismissed today. When Christians in the US are so quick to call minor inconvenience persecution, when a religious agenda is used for hate, they make a mockery of a true Christian life. No Christian is perfect in their love, I fail more often than I acknowledge even to myself, but we can do better than this.

To love is harder than to hate. Are we up for the challenge?

Freedom from sin

The mission of Jesus was from the same source and with the same object as the punishment of our sins. He came to work along with our punishment. He came to side with it, and set us free from our sins. -- George MacDonald, Hope of the Gospel

Why did Jesus die upon the cross? Why did he take on human form and come to earth? The common answer is that he died to accept punishment for our sins. George MacDonald, whose Hope of the Gospel I have been working through, dismisses that idea:

Unable to believe in the forgiveness of their Father in heaven, imagining him not at liberty to forgive, or incapable of forgiving forthright; not really believing him God our Saviour, but a God bound, either in his own nature or by a law above him and compulsory upon him, to exact some recompense or satisfaction for sin, a multitude of teaching men have taught their fellows that Jesus came to bear our punishment and save us from hell.

As MacDonald alludes to, this theory supposes the God was unable to forgive without extracting punishment. It forces us to accept that an innocent death can somehow replace the punishment of the guilty. What a ridiculous idea! We would not accept an innocent person's death as replacing the punishment of a murderer, even if that person gave their life voluntarily.

The opening quote from MacDonald points to a more radical explanation. Jesus did not come and die so that we could be forgiven for our sins. Jesus came and died so that we could be freed from our sins. God does not need some great sacrifice to forgive us. Rather, God needs us to renounce our sinful nature. It is not the sins that we have committed in the past that separate from God. We are separated by the nature which causes us to sin again and again.

Jesus came to reshape our nature. He came to teach us about love and hope. Jesus did not die to even out some cosmic score card. He died because his message was too radical (and still is). By living a human life, Jesus showed what no mere human can show: we can live life separate from our sinful nature. And by sending the Holy Spirit, he gave us the guidance we need to reject that sinful nature day after day.

Related posts:

• Jesus, our representative

Some controversy

It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.” - 1 Corinthians 5:12-13

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. - 1 Corinthians 6:12

I want to generally avoid politics on this blog, but I also want my writing to reflect my beliefs. So today I am going to give my view on a controversial topic: abortion.

I believe that whether you call a fetus a human, a potential human, a future human, or something else, it all amounts to a same thing: a pregnant woman has a developing life in her, a life that left undisturbed, would someday blossom into full human potential.

But I believe women should have the right to choose whether or not to bring a birth to term. No human being has the right to force another to support their life. We do not force people to donate organs to the dying. We should not force women to be a habitat for a fetus.

I believe, and I think all Christians should believe, that a woman has a moral obligation to fulfill the implicit commitment that was made when she became pregnant (if the pregnancy was not a choice, that is different). But I do not believe that we can force that obligation onto others.

Thruway Christians

John Shore has started a new community: Thruway Christians. The founding document of the group describes Thruway Christians as:

Christians who find conservative/right-wing Christianity too oppressive and exclusionary, and progressive/liberal Christianity too theologically tenuous.

Read the rest of the founding document. It's worth it. And then read the second point again:

Christ and Christianity are meant to be understood, appreciated, and experienced as galvanizing inspirations for living a life of love, compassion, fairness, peace, and humility. Period.

Christianity is about living a life of love and compassion. It is not about forcing our beliefs upon others. It is not about being right. It is not about having the right answers to theological questions. Christianity is about love and compassion.

I am a Thruway Christian, and I hope that we can provide a space for those who are unheard to express themselves, a place who do not fit into the tidy narrative that the world wants us to accept.