The last year or so in Cameroon taught me a lot about my beloved country. The good, the bad and the ugly. My prayer is that ultimately this knowledge will serve me well for God's glory. One of the things that came to my attention is how loyal we Cameroonians can be to the church we attend. Which is a good thing until it starts conflicting and interfering with one's loyalty to Jesus.
The tendency to lose sight of the ultimate focus of Christianity (Jesus) and rather focus on the denomination/men of God is not new. Paul strongly warned against this in the Bible.
1 Corinthians 1:12-13 "Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of Paul", or "I am of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," or " I am of Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" NKJV
1 Corinthians 3:4-7 "For when one says "I am of Paul" and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." NKJV
This tells us that our eyes should be first fixed on none other but Jesus. Our loyalty should be to God first. Not on a denomination, church or man of God. Something said in church contrary to Scripture should not be seen as okay just because church doctrine or the man of God says it is okay. Let us read the Bible for ourselves. As Christians we should all accept the Bible as having final authority on Christianity.
Our loyalty to church rather than Christ is also evident in our evangelism efforts when the approach is more focused on getting new church members than on winning a soul to Christ, irrespective of the church he/she decides to fellowship in. We can give advice on that, but we ultimately should trust that a new believer will be led by the Holy Spirit to the ideal place of worship for him/her. We should trust that there are other churches besides ours where one can get solid Biblical teaching to grow in the faith.
Unity is a word that hardly describes the body of Christ worldwide. Joyce Meyer said something quite interesting in one of her recent podcasts episodes. She said that before Christians are murdered for their faith they are not being asked if they are Catholic or Protestant, Christ Embassy or Redeemed Church of God, they are simply asked if they are Christians. That is all that matters ultimately.
How true of a Christian I was (how well I lived in obedience to God) is what I will be judged on once my time here on earth is over. Nobody is going to be asking me what church I attended or which man of God I followed. So lets stop identifying strongly with a church or man of God at the expense of love. Let us stop focusing on differences that won't matter in the end, and rather start loving each other irrespective of where we worship.
I will end with a short documentary that I hope will help us think about how we view church.
The tendency to lose sight of the ultimate focus of Christianity (Jesus) and rather focus on the denomination/men of God is not new. Paul strongly warned against this in the Bible.
1 Corinthians 1:12-13 "Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of Paul", or "I am of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," or " I am of Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" NKJV
1 Corinthians 3:4-7 "For when one says "I am of Paul" and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." NKJV
This tells us that our eyes should be first fixed on none other but Jesus. Our loyalty should be to God first. Not on a denomination, church or man of God. Something said in church contrary to Scripture should not be seen as okay just because church doctrine or the man of God says it is okay. Let us read the Bible for ourselves. As Christians we should all accept the Bible as having final authority on Christianity.
Our loyalty to church rather than Christ is also evident in our evangelism efforts when the approach is more focused on getting new church members than on winning a soul to Christ, irrespective of the church he/she decides to fellowship in. We can give advice on that, but we ultimately should trust that a new believer will be led by the Holy Spirit to the ideal place of worship for him/her. We should trust that there are other churches besides ours where one can get solid Biblical teaching to grow in the faith.
Unity is a word that hardly describes the body of Christ worldwide. Joyce Meyer said something quite interesting in one of her recent podcasts episodes. She said that before Christians are murdered for their faith they are not being asked if they are Catholic or Protestant, Christ Embassy or Redeemed Church of God, they are simply asked if they are Christians. That is all that matters ultimately.
How true of a Christian I was (how well I lived in obedience to God) is what I will be judged on once my time here on earth is over. Nobody is going to be asking me what church I attended or which man of God I followed. So lets stop identifying strongly with a church or man of God at the expense of love. Let us stop focusing on differences that won't matter in the end, and rather start loving each other irrespective of where we worship.
I will end with a short documentary that I hope will help us think about how we view church.
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