Jesus Made "One" Anything But "The Loneliest Number" (Part 4)

What Did Jesus Do?

“And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them (Gentile converts to faith in Jesus),
by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us (Jewish converts),
and he made NO DISTINCTION between us and them…”
Acts 15:8-9

I am one of, oh, I don’t know, maybe half a dozen fans of The Friends of Distinction, who were kind of The 5th Dimension wannabes (If you don’t know who The 5th Dimension were you’re much younger than I, and definitely haven’t a clue about The Friends of Distinction). Don’t worry if this is confusing, this WDJD isn’t about music of the 60s and 70s, or about friends among whom we may want to make distinctions. You see, Jesus made “one” anything but “the loneliest number” because he made no distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ (Which is kind of like saying The 5th Dimension vs. The Friends of Distinction wouldn’t matter at all to Jesus, because he would love them and their sound equally.).

The problem with the followers of Jesus, in the First Century and the Twenty-first, is that we seem to have a real issue with not making distinctions among those who should all be friends whom we accept and love equally. Whether it’s an unbearable yoke on the neck (Acts 15:10) of other disciples, or any other kind of “Jesus and ______” doctrine we might require to receive anyone as a fellow believer, making distinctions among ones who should be our friends in Christ is a refutation of the faith which declares that all who are saved are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus alone (Acts 15:11).

Yet, we continue to make distinctions based on the age of folks we are willing to baptize, which Bible translation we use, what kind of music is incorporated into worship, whether the pastor wears a robe or jeans, and all kinds of other stuff that Jesus never employed to separate his followers. It’s like this, Jesus wanted his followers, all his followers, to be ONE, friends with no distinctions!

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4