I am a white, male, middle-class American. I was reared by two parents who are still married. I grew up watching Family Ties and the Cosby Show in primetime and afternoon reruns of the Andy Griffith Show, Gilligan’s Island, and the Brady Bunch. Three’s Company was my first and most significant exposure to homosexuality for the first 25 years of my life. I graduated from high school, went straight to college, then eventually completed both a masters and post-graduate degree.
I married my high school sweetheart and we now have 3 kids that we educate at home. We live in America suburbia in a zero-lot-line neighborhood with 1000 other homes just like ours. I love my country and will vote for the most socially conservative candidates every time I get the chance.
But then I read the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians about a mystery. (By the way, I know who the “apostle Paul” was because I have attended Southern Baptist churches all of my life. And I don’t need the table of contents to find my way around the Bible.)
So now back to this mystery. What is it? We all love a mystery, right? What secret is Paul now going to expose? What code has he broken? What new special nugget of truth does he possess? This is going to be good. Here it is:
“…to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel”—Ephesians 3:6.
What? Are you kidding me? That’s it? That’s the mystery…that Gentiles (that’s Bible talk for non-Jews like me) are included in the body of Christ? Yes, that is it. Thankfully, that is it. Humbly, that is it.
But unfortunately, modern Jesus followers have lost our awe of that wonderful mystery. Why does Paul make such a big deal of us being included in the body of Christ? If anyone belongs, we do…right? You see, somewhere along the way we embraced an attitude of entitlement. We forgot there was a day we weren’t included. We forgot the barriers early believers crossed in order to share the Gospel with us. And so we have become snobs.
Before you get offended or think I’m talking about someone else, consider these areas of snobbery that have diluted the Gospel work of the American church.
Racial Snobbery
We love ethnic diversity until ethnically diverse people move in next to us. We may be more concerned with the protecting the value of our home than we are about penetrating lostness in our neighborhood.
Social Snobbery
Most people don’t think like conservative Christians about marriage, sexuality, and politics. Evolution, abortion, and gay rights are no-brainer issues for most people. And that’s perfectly normal? All of us are blinded to the beauty of Jesus, the authority of the Bible, and the glory of God until the Gospel transforms us.
Financial Snobbery
We roll with people who earn and spend like we do. And we consider any contribution to people with less means than we have as “charity.” And we are generally too intimidated to reach out to people in a higher tax bracket than ours. So in the end we live in a cast system walled in by our financial portfolios.
The privileges that American Christians have should be celebrated as blessings from God. None of us should feel one ounce of guilt for personal accomplishments, our families of origin, our Biblical heritage, or our economic prosperity. But it seems that too often our blessings have become barriers to the Gospel.
Perhaps we have allowed our standard of living to isolate us from people that God loves and Jesus died for. Perhaps we forgot that early believers lost friends, suffered financially, and rejected religious traditionalism in order to reach people like us. Perhaps we have become spiritual snobs.
But now it’s our turn. Now is the time we return to the mystery of it all…that we acknowledge that by God’s grace we are included…that life in Christ is a gift…that membership in the body of Christ is a privilege and responsibility. And the barriers that Paul and the early church broke through to reach people like us are the same barriers we tear down to reach people who are now just beyond Christ.
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