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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman
Diversity
Doesn't Mean Inclusivity The New Testament,
especially 1 Corinthians 12, teaches diversity within unity as being
basic to the Body
of Christ. Each one of us is
a separate, different, distinct, and vital person in the Body of Christ,
the church. We function in
our own unique capacity along with others for the good health of Jesus'
earthly body. Each one of us
views things from our own God-given personality and placement in Christ's
body, and thus, we carry out our responsibilities accordingly. Think of it this
way. A finger on your hand
sees things from a much different perspective than a toe on your foot.
Both your finger and your toe have their distinct placement and
function in your body. You
don't expect your toe to function as a finger or your finger as a toe.
If that were the case, you would be severely disabled and both your toe and
your finger would be unable to receive
needed impulses from your brain. In order for the
Body of Christ to actually be Jesus' earthly expression of who He is, we
must allow each other to be who Jesus wants us to be.
We must not view others through the lens of who we are and expect
them to function as we function. That
is the nature of a human body and it is the nature of Christ's earthly
body, but let's remember this. The
church is Jesus' earthy body, so there are limitations to the diverse
nature of individual body parts within Jesus' earthly body.
Jesus is the head
of His body as seen in Ephesians 4:15.
For this reason, He does not tolerate anything that misrepresents
who He is existing within His earthly body.
That means the Body of Christ, the church, is exclusive, and its
exclusivity is based on the
very nature and essence of Jesus. For
this reason the apostle Paul told the Corinthian believers to
disassociate with a man who was engaging in sexual relations with his step-mother (1
Corinthians 5:11). For this
reason Jesus was angered with the church at Pergamum for allowing heretical teachers in
its midst (Revelation 2:14 -16).
For this reason Jesus was upset with the church at Thyatira who
allowed a prophetess to lead men into sexual immorality (Revelation
2:20). For this reason Jesus
was ready to vomit the church at Laodicea
out of His mouth for adulterating itself with excessive wealth
(Revelation 3:16 - 18). I
could go on and on, but I think you get my point.
Church is an exclusive body of believers who desire to act on
every impulse that emanates from its head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
To put it bluntly; if Jesus has called you to be a male body part
in His body, I doubt if He would be happy with you becoming a female
body part in His body. That
may sound weird, but we see such body-part transformations in what is
commonly called church today.
When it comes to
church, inclusivity has its limitations because inclusivity is defined by the
very nature and essence of Jesus, and thus, anything that is not
consistent with who Jesus is, is excluded from Jesus' earthly body, the
church.
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