Sorry to disappoint, but this article has nothing to do with Tony Spell, is not a defense of Tony Spell,  and has very little to do with Covid or the Constitution of the United States but it has everything to do with what brought many of you to this article. WAIT! Don’t go, you owe it to yourself, your friends, and your relationship with Jesus to stick this article out!

Let’s face it. We are drawn toward the broken. We are drawn to the sight of interstate wreckage and, if we slow down just enough, maybe we will see something terrible. The psychology of this has been proven in well-researched studies. We, as humans, have a psychological bias toward the nasty and the negative. Of course, much of this is the result of an inner primal instinct toward survival and the natural avoidance of things that are harmful to us. But, let’s face it, too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

Ecology of Relationship

Ecology is the branch of biology that deals with the relationships between organisms and their physical surroundings. One could say that there is an ecology of marriage or an ecology of family. In other words, studies that are focused upon particular relationships and their particular surroundings that produce valuable insights and information that can serve many positive purposes.

I immediately think of the church body and how the Apostle Paul navigated what could best be described as an ecology of relationship within the body of Christ. According to Paul, the church is comprised of many members and Jesus Christ is the Head and Governor of the many members of that body.

It is a diverse body comprised of men and women from all walks of socioeconomic upbringing. It is a body comprised of every cultural and racial distinctive. The true body of Christ, unlike anything else in the world, is quite a beautiful portrayal of what the unity of diversity is supposed to look like. Yet, in the past several months we have seen very little that can be called a “beautiful portrayal of the unity of diversity.”

No, we have all slowed down, craned our necks, and have set our eyes upon the carnage of opinions, hateful rhetoric, slander slathered in erudite charm, and countless other mean and divisive actions and responses.

Bodies Everywhere

There are bodies everywhere. The carnage is real. In just a few months, we have all sat back with absolute shock, but many of us cannot get our eyes off the carnage. Just when we had a chance to show the world the beautiful unity of diversity among the many members of the Body of Christ, we decided to devour, provoke, and attack our very own brothers and sisters.

At a time when, rightfully so, we are seeking justice for our neighbor who was tragically murdered in a manner that appears to have been cold and calculating, we are putting together lengthy social media discourses, videos, and communications that are assassinating the character of our brothers and sisters. Have we forgotten that poignant words of Christ?

(1 Jn. 3:15) ¹⁵ Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

We are better than this! You are better than this! I am better than this! Yet, we continue to allow our dislikes and disagreements to place us in a position that is 100% contrary to a biblical call to unity and love. We have always been so quick to applaud the social justice of Jesus Christ when He saved the adulterous woman from the savage cries of the judgmental men, but we pick up the very stones those men dropped and we cast them with sadistic fervor at those very men. Did we forget the maxim we all heard from disappointed fathers or guardians when they looked down at us and said, “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

I am Talking to You

Yes, if you are reading this, I am talking to you. From pastors, to counselors, to saints, and to you–I am talking to everyone. When we wrote what we wrote and said what we said, can we honestly stand before God and say, “my motives were pure?” Pastors, please hear me right now! We are setting some terrible precedents for our precious flocks if we are dragging them into our aimed attacks cloaked in slick intellect. 

Principally, we can all hang our heads in shame as we hear the Apostle Paul’s biting words written to the spiritually gifted Corinthians:

(1 Cor. 3:3-5)  ³ For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?⁴ For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?⁵ Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

I think of the recent message preached by Pastor Raymond Woodward at Because of the Times titled “When Giants Fight” and I think to myself, can any of us really consider ourselves giants if we act and speak so small? 

The Grasshopper Reigns

This is the hour, it seems, when the grasshopper reigns. This is the hour where the high road has been forsaken and the trite, trivial, banal chatter of division and smug discourse lodges like a dulled blade in the backs of our brothers and sisters.

We are succumbing to the petty and we are not doing it with any form of grace. We are blundering, like drunk men and women, into fights we should not fight and, if we do not stop, God will hold each of us accountable for our words, thoughts, motives, and behaviors.

Chat forums cloaked in missional directives, organizational titles, or any other ecclesiastical agenda that serve as the fertile grounds for gossip, slander, and vain janglings are direct violations of God’s word and the constitution of His Kingdom. It is detestable what has been tolerated through the false security of private forums and private conversations. Folks, God will “bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts…” (I Cor. 4:5). 

Only Change will Conclude

I wept as I reached the conclusion of this article–I really did weep. I wept as I felt the call to repentance wash over my soul. “If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray”–that is a call to repentance, not for the sinful world, but the people of God. I do feel that the healing of our land (our world) and the revival promised in its wake is only secured when the people of God can first have a revival of repentance amongst themselves.

I cannot conclude, but I make a call to change. Preacher friend, pastor friend, brothers and sisters in Christ–let us seek pure religion and undefiled before God which is:

(Jas. 1:27) …To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Let us come back to the true evidence of a disciple of Jesus Christ…that we love one another.

(Gal. 5:13-16) ¹³ For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.¹⁴ For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.¹⁵ But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.¹⁶ This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

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