Unity is Counter Cultural
At each conclusion of the Monday night ladies’ Bible study I attend, Mary Westra always asks each person for a “takeaway” from the evening’s lesson. My takeaway from our Ephesians series this week seems to be that God is calling us to conform to His culture in the church; a culture that reproduces the person of Christ in each of us individually and corporately. It seems especially urgently poignant to hear this message now, doesn’t it? It is present in our sermons, at Bible study, in Hebrews class, and in messages I’ve been hearing from other leaders in Christ’s Church. We live in a culture that has stomped on the gas pedal towards fragmenting itself and Christ is the only true antidote.
Like all of us, I learned about the concept of family and developed a worldview from my family of origin and the culture in which we lived. From the outside, my childhood home was pretty stable, but we experienced a good deal of chaos within it. My brothers and I never knew from day to day what the emotional temperature would be in the house, nor what the rules would be that day. Ours was a home ruled by the emotion du jour. After I married Dean and we established our own home, I slowly realized that the manner of living I had learned fostered disunity and didn’t create the kind of home we hoped to have. Dean and I wanted to give our boys a stable, loving environment where growth and creativity would flourish. We realized this would only happen if he and I worked in the same direction. To accomplish this, there had to be an authority outside of each of us (Christ) that established that direction, otherwise, we would be engaged in a tug-of-war over wills. I learned and am still learning- I needed to let Christ change me so I could properly relate to Dean and our kids (learned from doing it wrong!) as was highlighted this past Sunday from Ephesians 4. First to realize my opinion wasn’t necessarily the best one (humility), to be patient and wait for God to work out the things with which I disagreed, to be gentle towards my loved ones, and most of all, to understand and embrace my God-ordained role in our family.
Years ago, people used to identify by something existing outside of themselves, such as a vocation, title, or family name. For example, I would introduce myself this way: “Hi my name is Ann, I am married to Dean, I’m the mom of Mark and Michael, the Grandma of Wesley and Caroline, I make jewelry and enjoy playing music.” However, in today’s social media culture, people identify themselves by an internal source-something they feel about themselves citing skin color, sexual preferences, and pronouns. I have just recently learned this phenomenon has been labeled Expressive Individualism. This ego-centrist way of thinking gives emotions power and authority to the extent that policies and laws have been changed to override what has been considered up until now, moral and just. Is it just me, or does it seem like we are a population seeking reasons to be offended as though being offended is a virtue?
We live in a lifestyle of customization: grocery stores are loaded with many multiple choices of each item, our phone apps are chosen and arranged to best suit us, social media’s algorithm chooses our content based on our preferences, and even the advertising we see is based upon our tracked shopping habits. New cars have individualized computer adjustments for comfort and driving assistance. Last week I overheard a conversation in which friendships were being discussed. The gist of the exchange was about editing one’s friend list, about cutting out people who were “toxic”. I’ve noticed a similar idea coming across many streams of thought: that you are too important, and life is too short to spend time with people who you don’t like. All of this shouts the message that we should focus on ourselves and gives us the illusion that we are in control of our lives. It informs us that we are the source of authority and that one’s happiness is the ultimate goal.
It seems that our collective society is mirroring the attitudes and behaviors Satan exhibited when he pridefully boasted about his plans against God Almighty. Isaiah 14:13-14 records his words: “For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.'” Satan tempted Eve with a similar thought, “you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” Gen 3:5
God is the one who, in His great wisdom, places us in our earthly families and decides the neighborhoods in which we live. He also sovereignty chooses how we are assembled into His church; we don’t get to choose! He calls us to be part of something larger, His authority and rule is so much greater than ours because He sees from a perspective outside our boundaries of time and dimension. He works this purposefully so we are confronted with our old nature to give us an opportunity to put it to death, to submit to Christ, and be empowered by the Holy Spirit, without which we cannot have unity. We could try to obtain it with a self-initiated “work harder, grit your teeth, and make it happen” mentality, but is that Spirit-empowered? We can know by what fruit is produced, the Fruit of the Spirit. The church has a tremendous opportunity to be counter-cultural if we live together in Biblical unity. Let’s not let our crazy world distract us from pressing on to the prize which is our inheritance in Christ Jesus.