ATTRIBUTES ASSOCIATED WITH BELONGING TO THE FAMILY OF GOD . . . DISTINCTION
Upon my public profession of faith in Christ, followed by a unanimous vote of the Church to accept me into the Fellowship of Believers, pending baptism, the presiding officer said enthusiastically, “Fellow members, it is my distinct honor and privilege to welcome our newest member to the Family of God.”
From that moment until this day, my appreciation for being accepted by the Lord as one of His children and by the Church as a member of the family, has soared sky high: “They who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, will soar on wings as eagles, will run and not grow weary, will walk and not faint.”
What a tremendous analogy the Psalmist used to describe the distinction that is ours - comparing the glory of those whose God is the Lord to the glory of the majestic eagle that soars high above the earth!
The honor conferred upon you and me regardless of whatever differences exist among us is the distinction of sonship that is offered to any person who, by their repentance to God and faith in Christ, say yes to our Lord’s invitation to “Come”.
God our Father has endowed His children with a distinction that sets each and every one of us apart – not some of us, ALL of us. And, as persons of distinction, we ALL have been granted the ability to make a distinction between the ways of the world and the ways of God . . . how the world treats people versus how God treats people and therefore would have His children treat people.
Previously we saw how God’s gift of discernment grants the ability to separate who we are now from who we were before our new birth. We ALL are sinners saved by grace – a fact which makes none of us more important than the rest of us. In a community of believers where weaknesses as well as strengths are acknowledged, we feel at home and, accordingly, we desire to welcome others into our Fellowship wherein we become “one in the bond of love”!
That said, a nagging question was raised by an apparent misunderstanding by some members of the Early Church: Is discrimination that favors some folks over other folks a matter of “practicing the law of love” or is it just an excuse for unchristian behavior? Well, let’s see how this mis-interpretation came about:
Our Scripture lesson presents a sharp contrast between life according to worldly standards (which allows for discriminatory practices) and life according to the Christian faith (which must always be non-discriminatory) - James 2:1-10 . . .
God’s gift of distinction is granted to ALL who belong to the Family of God and therefore makes all God’s children important in the sight of God – differences of any kind notwithstanding. “With God as my Father, Jesus as my Savior, and the Holy Spirit as my Companion, I am somebody!”
Since all of God’s children are persons of distinction in the sight of God, it would be incompatible and inconsistent with our profession of faith to even think about making distinctions whether social or otherwise between persons who belong to the Family of God. Christians must treat all members of the Family the same!
When we consider the culture of exclusivism and therefore the climate of class warfare that existed in the first century – particularly with reference to rich versus poor, masters versus slaves, ruling class versus working class – easily we can understand awkward moments that must have occurred when Christians met for worship.
The New Testament Church was the only place in the ancient world where economic-socio-political distinctions did not (were not supposed to) exist. Also, since the Church at first was made up primarily of the poor, it’s easy to see why those folks made such a big deal out of the conversion of a wealthy person.
“But”, James the brother of our Lord and the pastor of the first-ever Church of Jesus Christ thundered, “the Church must be the place where all socio-economic-political distinctions are blotted out!” The only distinction that matters is God’s gift of distinction that applies to ALL God’s children.
In a society where the rich in fact oppressed the poor by dragging them into courts of law, it is not wealth per se that James is condemning, but rather, it is the conduct of the powerful toward common folks.
It was as if the rich and famous, much like the rich young ruler who went away shaking his head at the cost of true discipleship, cultivated a “plantation mentality” by which the few land owners considered it their right to “lord it over” the many hard-working peasants who, in turn, had to depend on the few for survival.
Along comes the Way of the Cross at the foot of which the ground is level calling on anyone who would be rich in faith and thereby an heir of the Kingdom of God to repent of their sins and to accept each other as equal in the sight of God.
What an appeal this message of equality and inheritance conveyed to the poverty-stricken . . . the conscience-stricken . . . tough-minded yet tender-hearted folks in the first century, yea, in the twenty-first century! After all, don’t most of us today, for the most part, identify with common folks who just want to do right in God’s sight?
“God,” said Abraham Lincoln, “must love the common people because He made so many of them.”
In his first sermon in the synagogue, Jesus startled the crowd when He said, “The Lord has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.”
The fact of the matter is, the message of Christianity always has been that those who mattered to no one else mattered to God. It’s not that Christ does not want the rich and the famous; He does; the Church does; it’s been such a privilege to serve people from one end of the socio-economic-political scale to the other!
The gospel simply offered so much to the poor, and demanded so much of the rich, that it was the poor who were swept into the Early Church.
Through the centuries, however, with the influential preaching of stalwarts like the Wesley’s, Zwingli’s, Knox’s, Luther’s and then great preachers of the 20th century like the Graham’s, Marshall’s, Martin Luther King’s – many of the barriers that once divided us have been slowly but surely demolished.
Regardless of what it is that civil laws may permit or prohibit in terms of governing citizens of an earthly kingdom, there is a law that, for citizens who belong to the kingdom that is not of this world, supersedes all other laws, that is, “the royal law”: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
As a child of God, member of the family of God, citizen of the kingdom of God, you are a unique individual, special, a person of distinction because of your personal relationship to the King . . . Lord thy God . . . the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We all have been blessed with this distinction: heirs and joint heirs with Christ!
Now hear this: Members of distinction in God’s sight make no distinction as to the standing, status, salvation, sanctification of all other members of the family. God does not play favorites and neither should we! The sum and substance of it:
As children of God, to see ourselves as God sees us is to see ourselves as persons of distinction. As persons of distinction, to see our brothers and sisters in Christ as God sees them is to see them also as persons of distinction. Therefore, there is never an excuse for making a distinction between brothers and sisters in Christ. Furthermore:
Don’t let your perception of how others see you do a number on you. You may perceive that “they” have a negative opinion of you . . . are critical of you . . . are judging you. However, in this Fellowship of believers to which you were invited, in which you felt welcomed and now feel “at home”, it is most unlikely that such is the case.
In all probability, at our advanced stage of maturity, the reality is that you are as well thought of as anyone else - for one simple reason:
You love your neighbor as yourself and your neighbor loves you as himself or herself! Amen.
