“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34).
Max Lucado tells this powerful story in his book, Outlive Your Life. The story here is somewhat abbreviated and adapted:
“My friend Buckner Fanning was a marine in World War II, stationed in Nagasaki three weeks after the dropping of the atomic bomb. Can you imagine a young American soldier amid the rubble and wreckage of the demolished city? Radiation burned victims wandering the streets. Atomic fallout showering on the city. Bodies burned to a casket black. Survivors shuffling through the streets, searching for family, food, and hope. The conquering soldier feeling not victory but grief for the suffering around him.
Instead of anger and revenge, Buckner found an oasis of grace. While patrolling the narrow streets, he came upon a sign that bore an English phrase: Methodist Church. He noted the location and resolved to return the next Sunday morning.
When he did, he entered a partially collapsed structure. Windows, shattered. Walls, buckled. The young marine stepped through the rubble, unsure how he would be received. Fifteen or so Japanese were setting up chairs and removing debris. When the uniformed American entered their midst, they stopped and turned.
He knew only one word in Japanese. He heard it. Brother. ‘They welcomed me as a friend,’ Buckner relates, the power of the moment still resonating more than sixty years after the events. They offered him a seat. He opened his Bible and, not understanding the sermon, sat and observed. During communion the worshippers brought him the elements. In that quiet moment the enmity of their nations and the hurt of the war was set aside as one Christian served another the body and blood of Christ.”
At that moment, in that church, in those hearts – the hostility of war was set aside. The moment was not about nation versus nation or Japanese versus American. The brotherhood, the unity of Christ overcame all of that. “…as one Christian served another the body and blood of Christ.”
Today we see a great deal of racial tension. No, more than that. We have been witnesses to racial animosity like we have not seen in many years. We live in a world of deep brokenness and division, and it is easy to fall prey to the divide. But what should the role of the church be in all of this conflict? The answer, I think, should be obvious, but it doesn’t seem to work out that way.
Sadly, divisions are always going to be a part of our world. From politics to social issues to religion, disagreement seems to be built into the fabric of human existence. The church ought to be the ones to have this already figured out, but Christians seemingly can’t even agree with each other – resulting in some 30,000 denominations in the world today.
Racial reconciliation should not be a controversial issue anywhere – most certainly not within the church, where there should be no division. There should be unity.
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:14-16).
One new humanity – putting to death their hostility. We are to seek unity under God, setting aside our differences and embracing our brotherhood under Christ.
Let’s “One Another” One Another
So often today, the church has become little more than a place to show up, sing some worship music, listen to a sermon, and move on. Oh sure, we get involved in church stuff every so often, when we find time. In his book, Untamed Christian/Unleashed Church, Terry Wardle put it this way:
“For too long the church, the called out and called together, have not been so together. We may show up at the same place, but it’s not always a ‘shoulder to shoulder’ experience. In many cases it is just a lot of people alone in the same place.”
Isn’t it time to change that? Isn’t it time we truly came together?
Christians don’t go to church; we are the Church. We are the Church when we love and serve each other in the way that God has designed for us to live together.
The phrase “one another” occurs 100 times in the New Testament. Fifty-nine of those are specific commands teaching us how – or how not – to relate to one another. The phrase comes from a Greek word that means each other, mutually, reciprocally. One of the best-known uses comes from Jesus himself:
“A new commandI give you: Love one another.As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
John, Peter, and Paul all wrote about the love we ought to display to “one another.”
“For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1 John 3:11).
“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22).
“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).
The church has an incredibly vital role to play regarding the relationship – the reconciliation – between people of different, well, anything. Different ethnicities, different backgrounds, different races, different cultures, different … you name it. And believe me, the early believers were of different you-name-it everything. And Paul addressed this specifically – more than once – in his letters.
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
The Jews and Gentiles hated each other. Before his experience on the road to Damascus, Paul hated even fellow Jews who followed Christ – hauling them off to jail. Throw in the Samaritans and there was enough animosity to go around. Women were considered less than human – yet Jesus made them an important part of his work. And slaves were slaves. Yet were all created equal in the sight of God and all worshipped in Christ – together. One of the first converts was a eunuch from Ethiopia, a black man (Acts 8:26-40).
As the church was then – so should it be now. Ethnic and racial harmony.
We live in a broken world where our divisions define us. Yet, the church is actually called to be the people, the place, the entity that can demonstrate to all what it could be like to live together and serve “one another.”
“Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Colossians 3:11).
Border Issues
Recently when my wife and I had just moved into a new area and were looking for a new church, I happened to attend a men’s group meeting one evening at a local church. At the end, one of the gentlemen decided he needed to vent about all the “illegals” moving into the downtown area and how we “better be prepared because it’s going to get worse.” Clearly – and sadly – he held the people he saw in contempt. I could not help but wonder – where was the heart of the church?
Much is made today of the political issues at the border. And the issue is just that – political. Government and politicians are going to do what they are going to do. While we each are entitled to our own opinion of the political issue, and it is not my intent to argue the politics one way or another, as the church we are called to something different. We are called to care about the people. About the person. We are called to serve.
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:19-20).
Where is the heart of the church in matters of immigration and racial strife? No, not the political matter, the issue of the individual person we see with our own eyes. Shouldn’t we see them with our hearts too? Shouldn’t we respond as the Japanese in the church in Nagasaki responded to the American soldier? “Brother!” “Let me help you.”
“’For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:35-40).
What If?
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was being tested by the teachers of the law, and he was asked, “And who is my neighbor?”
“In reply Jesus said: ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have’” (Luke 10:25-35).
Jesus had made a Samaritan – hated by the Jews – the hero of the parable. An example for all to follow.
Imagine for just a moment – what if the church became the example to the world? What if the church could embody and embrace what it looks like to consider others before ourselves? What if we allowed ourselves – our identities – to be truly in Christ?
If the message of the Church is to bring reconciliation with God to the world, shouldn’t we apply that message in some of the most challenging and difficult ways?
Yes, people have differences that cause division. Those differences may be racial, ethnic, background, culture, color, political, social, and the list goes on. But couldn’t – shouldn’t – the Church be a meeting place for all people who love each other more than their differences separate them?
“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9-10).
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