Us vs. Them

Sometimes when you look at something from a new perspective, everything looks different. I would say that's the case with my current journey. A little more than a year ago, I found a book called "The End of Religion" by Bruxy Cavey which made me begin to see things from a new perspective. As I read the Bible now, through new lenses, I have come to a new understanding of what it means to follow Christ.

The newest passage is in Ephesians 2, where Paul writes:

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

I'm not sure how I read this passage before, but as I read it with new eyes, it really jumps out at me. As I was growing up, my idea of "holiness" always had to do with separation. I was "set apart" to God. What this did was set up a sort of adversarial relationship with people-particularly people who didn't know Jesus. I was taught to stay away from those people lest I become corrupted by them. If I did have to be around them, it was strictly for the purpose of evangelism. Separation and being different was always in the back of my mind. I don't think I was taught this explicitly, but that's certainly what I gleaned from my years of Christian education.

But as I look at Ephesians 2, I see that Paul describes the work of Christ on the cross as "reconcilliation." In 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, Paul then says that Christ gave us the "ministry of reconciliation." This, of course, makes sense. If we are to be the image of Christ as individuals and the "Body of Christ" as a church, then it would make sense that we would also have the same ministry.

In the Old Testament, we get the sense that there is to be an "us vs. them" mentality. After all, God called the Israelites to be separate. We learn that this was only for a time and for a specific purpose. As much as we in America like to think we are "God's chosen people" we are not the Israelites. The Israelites received the Law of Moses which, again, caused an attitude of separation and judgment. But the ultimate end of that Law was reconciliation in Christ. Once Christ did his work, our need (and desire) for separation should have been done away with.

We've held on to the "us vs. them," but I'm beginning to see that this is anti-Christ. We can no longer see anyone as our enemy. Later in Ephesians 6, Paul says that our struggle "is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." We don't fight spiritual battles against physical people and we certainly can't fight those battles with judgment when our strongest weapon is grace.

Judgment is the pornography of the Christian. It's enticing and promises to fulfill our need to feel superior, but in the end, leaves us empty and shallow. The difficulty of seeing things differently is not seeing things differently, but doing things differently. If my job is reconciliation, then it applies to every area of life, whether I like it or not. I have to stop seeing people with the "us vs. them" mentality and realize that it's only "us." I can no longer stand at a distance and judge other people's sin, but identify with them and first reconcile myself with "them." Then together, we can live in "our" reconciliation to God, through Jesus.