Two Bodies, One Disease

In my body, the wiring of my immune system is all awry. The green wire is evidently connected to the black, the white wire is connected to the blue, and the red wire is just left bare and exposed. The result? I have a very, very hard working immune system - but it puts all its energy in the wrong places. Basically, it can't tell friend from foe - so it ends up attacking my own healthy cells as vigorously as it would attack a foreign threat. The way I've explained it to my nieces is to imagine two armies facing off in battle: the invading troops have all their guns pointed at their opponent, but the "home team," with all their guns, turn and aim at one another! What would the result of that war be? Total annihilation of the home team!

Welcome to my body.

So how are autoimmune diseases treated? The most common way is to disable the immune system, or at least to cripple it. (Basically, the guns are taken away from the army. They are left with pocketknives to fight a war.) With different levels of severity, medications are given that shut off the body's ability to fight -- the same medications that are given to organ transplant patients to prevent Graft Vs. Host disease. The good part about that is my body quits attacking healthy cells (OK, so it reduces the amount,) but unfortunately it means I'm also less able to fight off real threats, like the chicken pox and pneumonia that hospitalized me this year.

So it's a lifelong game of walking a balance beam, trying on one hand to minimize the amount of self-attacks, but at the same time leaving some kind of arsenal for my body to fight off the true threats.

But there's another body I have seen that suffers from the same autoimmune disorder.

And that is the body of Christ.

❝For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.❞
--Eph 6:12

Or, at least, we should be.

But what I see happening with startling prevalence is that we do fight flesh and blood -- and to the heartbreak of our Lord, we too often fight one another. We war within the very body of Christ.

We erect a building and we call it a church, and then we hang a painted sign over the door with a name that we feel designates us to be the right ones of God. Or we meet in a living room and feel spiritually superior to those who don't. And heaven help those who meet under a different umbrella!!! We grab onto a piece of doctrine and claim that those who don't subscribe to our brand of doctrine (which of course is THE right doctrine) are not as close to God as we are.

But this isn't new.

Jesus scolded his disciples about this very thing. Once, 'The Twelve' told Jesus about something they had done, undoubtedly proud of it and expecting kudos from the Lord. "Teacher," they said, "We saw a man using Your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn't one of our group." Can you hear the pride in that statement? He isn't one of our group. Can you see the Twelve fist-bumping each other for their brilliant move and holding out their fists to Jesus, expecting Him to fist-bump them back? But He rebuked them.  "Don't stop him!" Jesus said. [Imagine the shock on the disciples' faces right about now.] "Anyone who is not against us is for us." [BAM.] Jesus then went on to say that it would be better for anyone who causes someone to lose their faith in Him if they'd had a 130-lb rock tied to their neck and they were thrown in the sea. Wow! Can't you see the disciples' egos deflating like an untied helium balloon?

Ever since the beginning, followers of Jesus have had to fight the temptation to view the world in terms of "us" and "them." Instead of berating disciples for doing something differently, might Jesus want us to encourage them for following the Lord?

We put being right above being loving.

But this isn't new.

Two thousand years ago, Paul of Tarsus had to deal with believers in Galatia who were being nasty to each other. He encouraged these believers to "serve one another through love," reminding them that the entire Law and every prophet's message could be distilled down to one thing: Love. "But," he warned them, "If instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another." So we should live according to our new life in the Holy Spirit!

"What horrible people those were way back then! I'm glad we're not like that today," we say.

HA! OK, so what does autoimmune disease in the body of Christ look like today? As I said above, one major symptom is the sign hung above the door of the building some call churches. Within 5 minutes of meeting another believer, I can almost guarantee the question, "Where do you go to church?" will be asked. There is only one purpose of these titles and names: To divide ourselves. What is a denomination, other than a portion being denominated (divided) from the whole? Oddly enough, there are even certain groups who say that they are not a denomination. (If that's not an oxymoron, I don't know what is!) They come up with definitions of a denomination with only the traits they don't possess; for example, a common one I've heard is that you're not a denomination if you don't have a central governing body (such as the regional, national and international chains of command). But having a hierarchy outside a local group is not the definition of a denomination. Being divided from the whole is the definition of a denomination!

Other ways we see spiritual autoimmunity is in spreading gossip about one another, by not helping one another when we have the means to help, by not becoming invested in one another's lives - you know, being a true community and family! Instead, we go about our everyday lives without connecting with each other in meaningful and sacrificial ways. The picture of the earliest church is an astoundingly beautiful one, but unfortunately it is all too uncommon in our day.

It is long past time that we drop all the walls of division among believers. What would happen if we truly took seriously Jesus' prayer in the garden before His arrest? Imagine you are God made flesh, standing on the earth for the last time as a free man, before your arrest and execution. You have only a short amount of time to talk to your Father in heaven. Don't you think that what that prayer includes would be some mighty important stuff? I do! And that's why the fact that Jesus uses this time to pray that the people who believe in Him would be united in the truth by the Spirit is no small thing. Yet it seems like we are continually inventing new ways to divide from one another and attack each other!

Jesus showed no partiality when He walked the earth 2,000 years ago. He loved, served, and taught those within His circle and those outside of it. By example and by word, He taught His disciples to do the same thing - and then He told those disciples to teach & show others how to do the same. At every turn, Jesus and His apostles tried to nip division in the bud -- yet it flourishes today.

Jesus said, "Love each other. Just as I have loved you, love each other. Your love for each other will prove that you are My disciples."

Yet Gandhi said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."

Read that quote again, and let it break your heart.

If we, as those who bear the name of Jesus Christ, cannot truly love each other, how can we love unbelievers? How can we even claim to love God?

If we cannot stop biting and devouring one another, how can we expect to have anything appealing to offer the world?

We must remember that other believers - yes, even those who think differently - are not the enemy. ("He who is not against Me.....") If we are not a source of healing & love for the other members of the same body we are a part of, how could we ever help heal others? We also need to remember that the enemy is not the people outside of the church. Because we are a priesthood, our job is to intercede to God on behalf of those people! (Think of Abraham & Moses who pleaded that God would not destroy the people because of their disobedience.)

So as I will be doing, I would highly encourage you to go before our Advocate, Jesus Christ, and ask Him to reveal the ways in which you & I could improve in the way we show love for one another. Not in word, but in action. In the kind of way that would rock the foundation of our society, because love like this cannot come from any natural source. A love like this is truly supernatural, and I believe the world would sit up and take notice if they saw this kind of love in action. Instead of adding fuel to the enemy's fire, let us kindle a holy love between one another that would spark into the hearts of others.

Our God in heaven is the Great Physician, and He has the power to heal this spiritual autoimmune disease that is running rampant in the body of His Son. What is the treatment? An overflowing and constant dose of LOVE. Love for Jesus, love for His Body (which is Jesus in the flesh, a.k.a. the church), and love for others. Are we willing to submit to this treatment? (There is no danger of overdose!) My final thought for you is from 1st John (which is an excellent source of encouragement in this area):

❝Let us love one another, for love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God ... if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another ... if we love one another, God abides in us ... God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God ... If someone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar.❞

What are some practical things we can each change in our own lives (with the emphasis on introspection, not  jumping right back in the U.S.S Criticize-Your-Brother ship) that will help heal this systemic disease and repair the damage?

Evidence Isn't Everything

Speaking from a scientific and medical perspective, is there any shadow of a doubt that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health? I would dare say that the answer is "no." So why then do people still smoke? Because our decisions are influenced by so much more than just the facts. Not even rock-solid evidence is enough to keep some people from continuing in harmful behavior.

And to be more specific, sometimes that evidence isn't enough to keep me from harmful behavior.

I have driven when I was way too tired. In fact, I've driven while under the influence. I've eaten McDonald's chicken nuggets even after learning about the ghastly pink slime. And I insert Q-Tips all the way inside my ear because the annoyance of a wet ear canal is evidently worth the risk of permanently damaging my hearing. For every single one of these decisions, I knew better at the time.

So what?

Well, I used to believe that *if* Jesus really WAS the Son of God like He claimed (and that was a big, gigantic IF), then surely there would've been compelling evidence of his other-worldliness while He walked the earth, and every single person within thousands of miles would've been His followers by the time He died. (And all the more so if the resurrection was true. Surely that made the cover of first-century newspapers, right?)

Instead, even the Bible tells us that within just a couple days of Him being executed, virtually all of His closest friends and so-called "disciples" had scattered like cockroaches in the light and were doubting what they once believed about Him being God-on-earth (as we plainly see by them saying things like, "We had hoped He would be the one...."). I mean, if Jesus really was God, then wouldn't there be so much proof of it that everyone could easily tell that Jesus "wasn't from around here"?? If He really did create the universe, then surely He could come up with enough proof to convince people. Surely it would take a few hundred years for the awe to wear off and people to stop believing in Him -- instead of the numbers going in the opposite direction.

So doesn't the fact that there weren't thousands upon thousands of die-hard believers in Jesus by the time He died prove that there wasn't very convincing evidence for His claims? In fact, not only did He not have multitudes of loyal followers at that point, but He couldn't even keep His few closest friends around. What kind of God can't even keep a dozen guys convinced?? There must not have been much evidence to back up His claims. Right?

Well, if that logic is true and we hold to it, then there shouldn't be a single cigarette smoker alive. Not a single meth user. No one would ever drive drunk and McDonald's would be out of business in a week. But yet we all continue to make decisions that we know aren't beneficial .... for some reason.

But why?

Because every one of us uses more than "just the facts" to make a decision. We consider what it will cost us and what we would gain. We consider how difficult it would be to change accordingly. (Admit it, quitting cigarette sounds like no fun at all.) The more we have to lose (friends, money, reputation, etc) and the more difficult the change, the less those facts are enough to impact us.

And make no mistake about it, Jesus wants nothing less than everything from you and me.

If we take Jesus at His word, then He wants to be absolutely first in our lives.

So what's the flip side of that coin? Why would I possibly want to hand over my entire life to Jesus? What could I possibly gain from that? Well, nothing less than immortality. Being forgiven of every bad thing you've ever done in your life - to have it all wiped clean. The constant presence of the Spirit of God who will actually make His home inside you, and then an eternity in the presence of Love Incarnate.

But too many of us (myself included, for too many years) chose to let such things as pride and immediate gratification take precedence over the proof and logical "cost/benefit analysis" of the equation. This is exactly why a large crowd could watch Jesus bring a guy that had been dead for many days back to life right in front of them - and yet many of those people never became His followers. They loved the approval of people and their status in society more.

So at the end of the day we each choose freely whether or not we will follow the Son of God, but let none of us say that it is only based on historical evidence.