Division

As we look around our world and our country today, we see many signs of division and discord—between political parties and policies, social classes, racial tensions, culture clashes, and religious differences, even among Christians. What are we to make of all this, and more importantly, how do the teachings of Jesus apply to us today, and how do we respond as Christians?

A common factor in all of these issues that we see today is a breakdown of human relationships. We seem to have lost the sense of working for the common good. Instead we divide society between winners and losers, the in group and the out group, friends and enemies.

What’s needed today is a movement by all of us from division to unity, from thinking only of what benefits ourselves and our group (however we define our group) to thinking of what is of benefit to all.

In trying to come up with an image that helps to illuminate God’s role in all this, I thought of a GPS device. It plots a way for you, but you have to know where you want to end up. It makes mid-course corrections and alerts you to dangers along the way. In some ways God fulfills this role for us. (To be continued…)

“My brothers and sisters, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” (James 2:1)