Being Inclusive Should Not Bring a Change in Identity
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(1) My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. (2) Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. (3) If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” (4) have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?’ (James 2:1-4)
Written by Jesus’ younger ‘brother’, or Joseph and Mary’s first consummate son; James explains in his Epistle that the Christian is not to desire to belong or be included as part of the ‘in crowd’. We sometimes gravitate to that which we believe reflects who matches our vision of self, or our desire to achieve being included in that social structure. A group of Army veterans may congregate together, for example. Sometimes a group like this can become ‘snobbish’. A Navy veteran may want to be included but could be looked down by the former Army members as being ‘not Army’. Church should not be a snobbish social club but an open refuge for those seeking the Truth, regardless of stature or societal description.
James instead tells us we should welcome all people, and not be so exclusive in our ‘inclusiveness’, if those wanting inclusion desire to follow Christ. All should be treated with equality and respect. At the same time, we need to be exclusive to Jesus and His Gospel, and follow His precepts so as not to change our identity to be inclusive at the expense of pushing aside the Word of God and His commands. The Army veterans should include the Navy vet, but not at the cost of singing sea shanties; they would change their identity to do so. The Navy veteran needs to learn to sing ‘As The Army Goes Rolling Along’ if he wants to be accepted as part of that group. The Army group that decides to woo the Navy veteran by singing ‘Anchors Aweigh’ is changing its identity to win over the Navy veteran but loses its primary purpose to exist.
We Christians should always be open to welcoming those who want to come and worship the Lord, with the understanding that we cannot change our identity for their sake. We also cannot change our identity in Christ to solicit our admission into their social circle. We need to always welcome the rich, the poor, the straight, the gay, the unwed mother or the bachelor young man. What we cannot do is to accept or change to use secular societal norms to attract these folks, but instead allow the appeal of Jesus and the inherent Word of God to pull them toward a relationship with Him.
