|
About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Is
Church Inclusive Or Exclusive? The
word "inclusive" is now culturally popular. It has
replaced the word "tolerance". We once tolerated those who
are different. We now include them. Inclusion has snuck into
the latest church growth fad where anyone and everyone from all sexual and
religious designations are not only welcomed in a church meeting but
included as full partners of church. Such inclusion is based on the
belief that love must include everyone. There are Biblical
misunderstandings here concerning what is Christianity, church, a church
meeting, and love. Christianity
is not a religious belief system one chooses to adopt. It's a
personal relationship with Jesus that is by invitation. Jesus said
"no man comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him"
(John 6:44). In this respect, Christianity is not inclusive.
It's exclusive. Church
is the present-day human body of Jesus since He is no longer here in a
human form. It was born when God's Spirit entered the very beings of
Jesus' initial disciples (Acts 2) who "were immersed by one Spirit as
to form one body" (1 Corinthians 12:13). Church is a community
of body parts having God's spiritual DNA where each part is a supportive
functioning participant for the health of all, as 1 Corinthians 12
teaches. In this respect, Church is not inclusive. It's
exclusive. Church
meetings, where all may be welcome, are just meetings. They're not
church. Note that 1 Corinthians 14:24 states "if an unbeliever
or an inquirer comes in" to the meeting. The word
"if" suggests a meeting is not for unbelievers to become
believers. Its primary focus
is for believers to gather, contribute and support each other via worship
in song, teaching, meals, and various forms of fellowship as 1 Corinthians
14 teaches. In this respect, church meetings may be inclusive, but
church itself is exclusive. Love
is not limitless, that is, it has boundaries. It is fenced in by
truth. If we jump the fence in our attempt to love, we fail to love.
Love must be demonstrated in both "action and truth" (1 John
3:18). If we concede to
someone's sin in the process of extending love, we violate truth.
Love eventually exposes sin in the hope of repentance and
restoration, just as a parent exposes a child's sin in the process of
loving discipline. One
can't simply decide to be a Christian, go to a church meeting and claim to
be a full functional participant in church apart from God's DNA, His
Spirit living within him or her. Church is not a mixture of any or
all sexual or religious designations.
In this respect, church is not inclusive. It's exclusive.
Church,
the Community of Christ's chosen people, is to be a counter-cultural
organic community that is in stark contrast to all other communities, but
so often it's not. Church often looks no different from a civic
charity, a business or a political party. That's because of the
inclusion of everyone, anyone, and everything in between based on an
unbiblical concept of love. After
forgiving a prostitute, Jesus told her to sin no more (John 8:11).
He told a commercialized church that He would spit it out of His mouth
(Revelation 3:14 - 22). He told a lackadaisical church to repent or
else lose its validity (Revelation 2: 1 - 7). Paul told a church to
hand a man over to Satan because he was having sex with his stepmother (1
Corinthians 5:5).
Love
is the commonly accepted reason for the concept of cultural inclusion, but
God's love is bordered by truth that church must never cross. If it
does, it defies the very essence of a Biblical church. Again, church
is not inclusive. It is the exclusive earthly bodily form of Jesus.
When we lose sight of this, we lose church.
|