It’s interesting to me how the church in our culture loves to divide itself into groups. We have “youth” group, “college” group, “singles” group, “young adult” group, “men’s” group, “women’s” group, so on and so forth. I’m not saying this is wrong, and I know it provides certain benefits. However, I think when that becomes our primary context, it really robs us of something. I believe that diversity provides the greatest context for growth. While it feels the most comfortable to be with others like us, those who can “commiserate” and closely relate with us in our season of life, we actually will experience the greatest forward momentum when fellowshipping with those across many different seasons of life. If you want to be called higher, find those who have lived through your season of life, steady in the Lord. If you want to regain something that the cares of life have choked out, find those who are young and vibrant, and allow yourself to be provoked. Again, this isn’t intended to speak out against having these groups across the board, as I know they have some value – just to remind us that there’s a real danger of inhibiting our growth if that becomes our primary fellowship environment.
Opposing the Tide of Moral Relativism
A steady bearing I see is the rising dominance of the philosophy, now increasing with each successive generation, which gives supreme significance to emotion, to the sentimental exhibition and outward appearance of good – while steadily diminishing the priority and importance of firm, unyielding values, absolute truth, and substance of character. Alarming. The church, which ought to be the bulwark standing firm against this tide of relativism, is rather participating whole-heartedly in this steady reversal of proper order. We applaud those who elevate humanity, who appeal to our emotion – without rightly testing the substance of their words and character against THE Word of God. Shame on us. We must pay heed, lest we are actually endorsing the spirit of the age (the anti-christ spirit), which above all things seeks to deceive by tempting our sentiment rather than our judgement. We are called to endorse a Kingdom which is yet to come – the values of which stand in such stark contrast to those of the world, that they are certain to incite anger and hate in those who are un-renewed.
The Danger of Assumptions
One of the most divisive things we can do is make assumptions about the feelings and motives of someone else (or worse, an entire group) – particularly someone we don’t see eye to eye with. Let’s strive to have the humility to push delete on our assumptions, and actually listen to those with a different perspective. We may learn something we didn’t know. We may find more common ground than expected. Sometimes we may not, but at least we’ll understand one another as people, rather than just “opponents”.