Separation

  Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (Corinthians 12:15-27)

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? (Genesis 3:11a)

“Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Mark 10:9)

You know that famous Love Chapter? I Corinthians 13? Love is described and we all say, “Oo.” Yes, well, these are most of the last three paragraphs before that passage. This might be considered the question that chapter 13 answers. A friend paraphrased it in something I’m reading and today seems as good a day as any to consider it and place it before you for consideration. We may not put the problem in terms of eyes and ears. It might be Conservatives and Liberals, introverts and extroverts, educated and uneducated, or rich and poor, male and female, traditional and modern, this race and that race, imaginative and two-feet-on-the-ground, beautiful and not beautiful or even ugly, or got-it-together and falling-apart-for-the-tenth-time. The point is “us” and “them.”

The first problem is “Because I am not…” First, reread the second passage above. Who told you that you’re not included in the acceptable category? Sometimes, this is an excuse we use so we don’t have to do something, or anything. Moses claimed he couldn’t talk well (keep in mind that such was his opinion/excuse, not God’s.) Gideon was the least of his family, which was least of his tribe, which was the least of the Israelites. Scripture is full of “am nots” because Scripture is full of “I am.” But the key is that “am nots” are no less a part of the Body of Christ. What God has joined, we have no right to separate.

The second problem is “I don’t need you!” This could also be said, “Because you are not…” Just as we can look on ourselves as not being good enough or not belonging, so we can look at others that way. We can, but the Scripture tells us we are wrong to do so. I’ve held numerous conversations with people who have decided to have nothing to do with a church, or (worse) the Church because of some separation they don’t approve of. ”It’s wrong to exclude ____,” they say, then exclude everyone, or everyone who does not agree with them. What God has joined, we have no right to separate.

None of this should be used to suggest that the Church should include those who violate the teachings of Scripture. This discussion refers only to those who are Christians. After all,  “What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (II Corinthains 6:15) We need to be careful neither to separate what God has joined nor to join what God has separated.

No, the focus here is within the Church, and the focus is the fact that I tend to separate myself from others and they tend to separate from me. I am sure I will be found unacceptable, partly because I have been found unacceptable. It happens, but the Scriptural solution isn’t to withdraw or attack. It’s to love.