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“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” – 1 Corinthians 12:12-13
” ‘The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.’ “ – John 17:22-23
” ‘And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.’ ” – John 10:16
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” – Galatians 3:28
One clear teaching of living a lifestyle of revolutionary Christianity is the call for believers to live in unity. We are described as a “body” (1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Romans 12:5), and as a body our “head” is Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23, Colossians 1:18). Moreover, the call of Galatians 3:28 above, combined with Paul’s declaration of becoming “all things to all people” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23), shows us that Christianity is above all earthly divisions.
Issues of racism, sexism, or political discrimination are not and should never be a problem for the revolutionary Christian because it was not a problem for Christ. We even see at one point in the New Testament epistles where Paul recounts having to rebuke Peter for partaking in divisive behavior (Galatians 2:11-14). Yet, throughout America we see people using religion to segregate and attack people of different races, sexes, or political views. We see the KKK rising up and attacking African-Americans, often in the name of religion, burning crosses on their property and at places of worship. We see “Godly” men oppress their wives, even to the point of physical abuse, because they read Ephesians 5:22-24 but fail to continue on and read Ephesians 5:25-33. We see people setting bombs inside abortion clinics to try and stop the killing of innocent children, forgetting that “vengeance is the Lord’s” (Romans 12:19). All over there are religious people using the name of Christ to perpetuate their own sinful prejudice’s. However, as a revolutionary Christain we know this is not God’s way.
Similarly, we see divisions in the church itself. In every town there are multiple churches coming from different denominations. But what is a “denomination”? It is a division in the body, a man-made separation in which people say “This what I believe and if you don’t like it I’m going to take my congregation and play somewhere else!” Sometimes these divisions become necessary because God’s people must reclaim the truth from a church which teaches heresy (such as was the case in the Protestant Reformation). However, often times the divisions come because some group of people begin to teach or believe that which is not Biblical and desire to start their own group which has now placed man’s desires and wants above God’s Holy Word (we see this in the recent split of the Methodist church over congregations wanting to accept homosexuality as unsinful). However, as true Christians we must seek to avoid unnecessary divisions and to not find ourselves attaching labels out of pride or tradition, since as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”
Therefore, to live the revolutionary Christian lifestyle we must seek to avoid sinful prejudices and unholy divisions, feelings that would create animosity or strife among one another, and instead live our lives in humble submission to Christ as the Head over us, longing to glorify Him in all of our actions and relationships.