Good Morning Friends,
We live in a divided time. Politics, media, technology, and even our personal relationships can tempt us to sort people into competing tribes: us and them, right and wrong, my side and their side. Sometimes our disagreements are important. But division becomes dangerous when our beliefs become less about truth and more about identity, belonging, resentment, and winning. The church is not immune. And when people see the same bitterness among Christians that they see everywhere else, why should they listen to our message? So I turned to Scripture and asked: When we are divided, is there a door numbered three?
Scripture Summaries:
In Ephesians 3:14-21, Paul prays that believers will be strengthened by God’s Spirit, rooted and grounded in love, and filled with the extraordinary love of Christ, trusting that God can accomplish far more than we can imagine.
Yet in Luke 12:49-53, Jesus warns that following Him will not always produce comfortable peace. The Gospel confronts us, changes our loyalties, and sometimes creates division, even within families.
Message: These passages give us a surprising picture of Christian life. We are called to be rooted in love, yet courageous enough to stand for Christ when doing so is difficult. Jesus does not call us simply to pick one side of every cultural battle. Perhaps He offers us door number three: an identity centered not in political party, ideology, or tribe, but in Christ. That does not mean avoiding disagreement. Jesus Himself tells us that truth can divide. The Gospel challenges our pride, selfishness, resentment, and desire to have our own way. But there is an enormous difference between division caused by faithfully following Christ and division caused by our own anger and pride.Our calling is therefore neither to water down the Gospel nor to weaponize it. We need truth with love, conviction with humility, courage with grace. And we cannot manufacture that balance ourselves. Paul reminds us that it is God who strengthens us through His Spirit. When our spiritual batteries run low, we return to Christ. We reconnect with Scripture, prayer, worship, and one another. We remember that we are rooted and grounded in love.
And So, perhaps door number three is not really a place in the middle. It is a different way altogether. The world says, Choose your tribe. Jesus says, Follow Me. The world says, Defeat your enemies. Jesus says, Love them. The world says, Prove that you are right. Jesus says, Speak the truth in love. Christian unity does not require us to agree about everything. It asks something harder: that our deepest identity belongs to Jesus rather than to the divisions of this world. When that happens, God can begin taking what is broken and divided and joining it together in a new way for His glory. Maybe that is door number three. And maybe Jesus has been standing there all along.
Pray that we will be bold when Christ calls us to courage and humble when He calls us to listen. Pray that pride, resentment, and fear will not divide us. Pray that the Holy Spirit will renew our minds and root our hearts in love. Pray that we will speak truth without losing grace, disagree without losing compassion, and resist making political or cultural identities greater than our identity in Christ. Pray that God will take what is broken among us and make it new.
Blessings,
John Lawson
