By Oyem, Israel Ekene
Calvary greetings, children of God . It gladdens my heart to knit the letters of this writing to you because it leaves my heart free from the burden it has been carrying about what’s becoming of what we represent as a body and who we claim we represent. As Christians, we should have some sense of shame in disunity. There should be that bad striking of the heart when something goes wrong in the body of Christ.
I agree that we now have different doctrines with different names of churches; yet, we all call on God, leaving the issue of some people not calling on the true God amongst us who answer to the name Christians. Even at that, we can’t still deny the fact that people of other faiths see us as one, calling on one God. This is supposed to bring to our awareness that we are seen as one; hence, any injury to one is indirectly an injury to all. This writing rounds the shameful act of Christians criticising Christians, Christians mocking Christians, the misrepresentation of Christianity, and the way forward.
No part of the body is solely dependent on its own; any damage to one part directly or indirectly affects the whole body. It is worthy of mentioning that, just like Apostle Paul has it well stated in 1 Corinthians 12:27 AMP.
[27]: “Now you [collectively] are Christ’s body, and individually [you are] members of it [each with his special purpose and function],” we are seen as one from the perspective of those in other religions. They do not understand that we have false teachers amongst us. This is why we should refrain from spreading the negativity of certain denominations; we should desist from making fun of anything that happens in any denomination that doesn’t sit right with our faith or beliefs. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t pinpoint it, but there’s a way to go about making corrections [in love] without even calling the name of any denomination or doctrine—that’s if there’s even a need for it.
Trialling the issue of one body and one name is the discourse on love. Let’s use our families as an analogy. We will all agree that not everyone in the family is cool-headed or may have been saved from living a wayward life. Even at this, we won’t go out spreading the ill deeds of such members of the family. All we would do is talk to the person in love in secret while protecting the image of the family from other people gaining access to the attributes of such a member of the family that’s a far cry from being commendable. This is what nine out of ten families do to prevent shame from coming to all the members of the family.
Let’s not forget that the Bible admonishes us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. If we truly keep God’s commandment, we would adhere to this, too.
Most times, when we sin against God, we don’t broadcast our evil deeds, yet we are quick to criticise our fellow neighbours. Lest we forget, Christ came not for those who are perfect (without sin)—these are the very kind of people He came to save.
Last but not least, we shouldn’t engage in every trend as Christians, particularly ones that do not give glory to God. Many Christians join every trend in the name of ‘cruise’. The word ‘cruise’ is a slang used mostly in Nigeria that means having fun, sometimes at the expense of other people. It is not uncommon these days to see Christians make fun of others, particularly fellow Christians, because of things that do not align with what we believe or over their mistakes. The Bible strictly warns us against being mockers and scoffers; we should not walk in the path of those who are in this category, lest we should be termed as one.
To round it all off, I want to believe that things will only get better as regards this pressing issue of making fun of a doctrine or denomination or speaking badly about them. It isn’t in our ability to judge: judgment belongs to God, and only He is the great judge. Instead of criticism, let’s channel our concern to having our knees on kneel—with supplication to God to bring them to salvation and repentance so they can see the true light of God’s word because we all profess God’s name and are all labelled Christians: an injury to one part of the body is an injury to all parts of the body.