must be driven by the call to fulfill God’s mission together and fight
against a common enemy because we are all on the same team. We let
go of our cultural bias, language preference, theological differences,
class or status and take a position of humility, gentleness, patience,
understanding and hospitality in order to work toward unity through
the Holy Spirit. We have the opportunity to do this in our church and
our world by choosing to serve those who are different from us.
1 Peter 4:10 admonishes, “Each of us should use whatever gift you
have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in
its various forms.” The word various, poikilos in Greek, is actually
many colored. It’s translated various, but it’s a word used to describe
clothing, a colorful garment with a lot of colors that go together. Peter
is writing to a group of all different ethnicities, and he calls God’s
grace many colored. Could there be a better metaphor we could use
for people of different cultures and races coming together for one
purpose?
1 Peter is written to a bunch of very different people groups. It
is not written for a group of Judeans, all the same race and religion
who all believed that Jesus was the Christ. These people were not
made up of the same class or ethnic group. It is written to people
who are coming together because they love Jesus even though they
have very little in common. They are not from the same family.
They have different jobs. They have different traditions. They have
different languages, and Peter is writing to them about how they can
be a church despite having so little in common. Peter describes this
church as coming from many nations, but now they are a new nation;
they are united as one in Jesus Christ. He says that we are a new holy
priesthood, coming from whatever background we had, but now
with direct access to God through Jesus Christ.
United for the Kingdom
Whenever God is about to use His people in a mighty way, Satan
tries to create chaos and division by dividing us in the physical. But
when we are united, we are able to fight a common enemy and to
fight in the spiritual. The enemy wants us divided along issues of race
so we stay busy fighting each other and fail to see the true enemy
within. When God unites us in the power of His Spirit, we are then
able to fight our common enemy in order to advance His kingdom,
not our own political agendas.
pg. 18 — lightandlifemagazine.com
The Vietnam War took place in the ’60s when racial tension was
at an all-time high in our country. Riots were taking place between
whites and blacks in the U.S. but those same people were expected
to fight together against their common enemy in Vietnam. It wasn’t
easy, but those troops learned that if you allow race to divide you,
then your true enemy will kill you. So they began to work together to
see each other as brothers and sisters in arms and to have each other’s
backs because they knew that was the only way that they were going
to make it out alive. The same tactics that their enemy used then are
the tactics that the enemy uses now. If we can unite under the blood
of Christ, we will be able to fight on the battlefield and see the victory
that God has already laid out for us, because in Christ we are one and
are called to live lives worthy of the call.
Paul writes in Ephesians 4:1–6, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then,
I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be
completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another
in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the
bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were
called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one
baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all
and in all.
Racial unity is not a feel-good phrase to be tossed around. Racial
unity has to be driven by a foundation in Jesus Christ and the gospel,
but if all we want is racial unity, then we completely miss the gospel
of Jesus Christ. We use words like social justice, racial reconciliation
and diversity in our mission statement as if these words alone can
create peace and unity. We can only experience true unity when we
draw together around the cross to bring reconciliation to all people,
stand against our common enemy and unite as one body — bold,
beautiful, different and diverse.
As a Mexican-American and Korean-Canadian couple, we know
our relationship did not start because of lack of interest in our own
ethnicities or the desire to be a diverse couple. We know that God
is the one who brought us together and united us because we were
simply led by God to work together for the same purpose. We are
united as Christ-followers who happen to be from two different
cultures with a deep appreciation for where we come from, where
our parents came from and for where we are going now as a Mexirean
family. For us, Kimchichanga is a great example of racial unity that
we find within our community. So what’s your Kimchichanga? What’s
the missing ingredient in your community that would take what’s
good and make it great? Who are the missing people groups in your
church and in your circles that are desperately needed to complete
the picture and fully demonstrate to the world what the kingdom of
heaven looks like?
Our prayer for you is that you would find this magical ingredient
that you may have not realized has been missing from your life.+
“The enemy wants us
divided along issues of
race so we stay busy
fighting each other
and fail to see the true
enemy within.”
/lightandlifemagazine.com