Dear Theophila and Theophilae
Isn't it strange how history repeats itself?
In apostolic times, there were divisions in the early church, where some claimed to be "followers of Peter", others "followers of Apollos" and yet others "followers of Paul".
1 Corinthians 1 :Divisions in the Church
10I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
11My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.
12What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Peter"; still another, "I follow Christ."
13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?
I Corinthians 3:
3You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?
4For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?
5What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.
6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.
9For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
Even during the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, we read in Matt 9 of how the disciples of John the Baptist were upset whey they discovered that the disciples of Jesus did not fast.
Fast forward to the 21st century in Singapore, and the same thing is happening even right now! The 3 "mega-churches" on this island have congregations that number in the tens of thousands. Yet, instead of uniting together to make an impact on society, we see leaders and followers of one church "finding faults" with leaders and followers of the other 2.
I had a colleague who used to attend the largest church in Singapore. She enjoyed the worship and preaching, but what made her decide to leave was when her care group leader started to pressurise her and others to buy the music CD of their pastor's wife, so as to boost its sales. There are also others who criticise that church as being too "worldly" because that pastor's wife wears clothes that does not agree with their own perception of how a pastor's wife should be dressed! Yet, in spite of men's doings, God prevails and continues to bless that church, and its attendance has shot past 20,000 already.
The 2nd largest church also has its share of criticisms. Christians have labelled it a cult, a church with heretic teachings, a church that over-emphasises grace at the expense of the law, etc. Yet, once again, God has prevailed and has blessed that church too, with attendance now approaching 15,000. It is not uncommon to see hundreds upon hundreds of people queueing patiently to enter it, a scene you thought would only be seen outside pubs and discos.
The 3rd largest church also has its detractors. The pastor sees magic as a means to reach pre-believers, on the premise of 1 Corinthians 9:20 ("To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews."). Some Christians are concerned because they say he is dabbling with the occult. Yet, membership continues to be above the 10,000 mark, and that church has very established outreach and youth ministries.
While all these divisions are taking place, guess who is the one rejoicing? None other than Mr S A Tan himself :-(
So what should our response as believers be then? Consider the following passages recorded in the synoptic gospels:
Matthew 12:30
"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
Mark 9: 38-40 Whoever Is Not Against Us Is for Us
38"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us."
39"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me,
40for whoever is not against us is for us.
Luke 9
49"Master," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us."
50"Do not stop him," Jesus said, "for whoever is not against you is for you."
Just imagine if these 3 mega-churches could put aside their differences and instead concentrate their efforts on what are similar, ie. the love of Christ, reaching out to pre-believers, etc. Someone once said that "Don't look for a perfect church. Once you go there, you will make it imperfect." As long as one is receiving food that makes him grow spiritually, he should continue to feed there.
There is a dear brother of mine who has very differing views about the gospel of grace and the finished work of the cross from myself. Yet, I have no problems linking his blog to mine because we are parts of Christ's body and I love him as a person. My prayer is that he will be able to find it in his heart to reciprocate. Yet, even if he does not, it is OK because I will continue to love him as my dear brother, whom I will enjoy fellowship with to "eternity and beyond" :-)
In closing, let us remember the following hymn that we sing every now and then:
I am the church, you are the church
We are the church
All who follow Jesus all around the world
Yes, we're the church together!
No comments:
Post a Comment