Jesus Made "One" Anything But "The Loneliest Number" (Part 8)

What Did Jesus Do?

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ IS all, and in all.
Colossians 3:11

It is a good thing there is no Good Fairy around to put a Pinocchio kind of spell on us. You know, that one where our nose grows when we tell a lie. I mean, imagine how awkward, to say the least, it would be on a Sunday morning when we all stood up to sing “You Are My All In All” and our noses started growing! Think about it, there we all are, singing to Him, telling Jesus that he’s not only #1 in our lives, but that he’s #1 and Only. Come on, be honest now, am I the only one whose nose would quickly surpass that of Cyrano? Why, the evidence would be there, right in front of our, uh, noses, as we gather beneath our tall steeples and behind our stained glass, or meet in much less pretentious, but equally parochial settings which belie our profession that Christ truly is our all in all.

If Christ is all, then being a part of the Church, which is his Body, is our identity. But most of us can’t get beyond our being part of our particular churches, and in fact avoid, ignore, and even actively work against any prompting of the Holy Spirit to seek after and work for any coming together in Jesus with other believers. We like “our” Jesus, and “our” church, and “our” faith, and “our” songs, and “our” Bible, and so on. In fact we like all that is “ours” so much, that it makes any and all claims to love Him and His disingenuous, which is a high sounding way to say that we’re liars.

We need to hear what Paul was saying to the Colossians, and to believe it, and to start living it, if we don’t want our noses to keep sprouting when we sing about how much Jesus means to us: “Here, in the Church, in Christ, there are no distinctions, no divisions. Once you’ve put on Jesus, there is no place in the new self for any identity in your life other than His. If Christ is all, then all else is nothing. For as long as you permit anything else to be something in you or to you, you make Christ nothing.”

Granted, this is radically challenging teaching. But there is no place for cutting and pasting, for trimming and reshaping, for reimagining and remaking Jesus and his Church to suit ourselves, our congregation, our denomination. Want to do a simple test to determine if Christ is all? Listen to the harmony of the Body of Christ. Are things a little out of pitch within the fellowship of believers you worship with? What’s it sound like, if and when different congregations in your community get together? If there is silence, because we keep to ourselves, or if the sound is discordant when we meet, then there is a problem, because Jesus always binds everything together in perfect harmony (Colossians 3:14).

I can’t speak for you, but I believe it is time we sought the sweet harmony, and peace of Christ, that is present only when He IS all, and IN all who are his Body, the Church. Jesus makes “one” anything but “the loneliest number,” and the harmony of the many who proclaim his praise with one voice through our psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16) perfect. And our noses will be in pretty good shape too.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4