Wearing Jesus’ Letters
“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep your eyes on those who cause dissensions and create obstacles or introduce temptations [for others] to commit sin, [acting in ways] contrary to the doctrine which you have learned. Turn away from them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites and base desires. By smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting [the innocent and the naive].” (Romans 16:17-18, AMP)
When I was in college, I joined a sorority. There was an awesome sense of belonging in that, knowing that I was in a community of women that I could call friends, and we could accept each other's differences simply because we were united by the same Greek letters of the sorority. Over those three years that I was an active sister, there was this idea drilled into us that we were “always wearing our letters.” In other words, we were always representing our sorority, whether we were wearing the Greek letters that designated us as a community or not. So wherever we went, whatever we said, however we conducted ourselves– it was a reflection of the sorority itself.
Funny enough, it works the same way with Christ. Once I receive salvation, I am marked by God as His, and I become a representation of who He is to the world. In very similar ways, we are “always wearing our letters” in the sense that after the moment of salvation, whether we decide to serve the church in a greater capacity, or to simply be a member of the body of Christ, we are evermore the physical representation of Christ to this world. But because we’re human, that is easy to forget. And as a result, we can sometimes have people serving the church that do more to steward toxicity and division in God’s house than healing and community. So, instead of pursuing our calling as the Church and Body of Christ, sometimes the church does more pushing away and alienating the lost than we do to bring them nearer.
And maybe you're a victim of it, too. Maybe someone specific comes to mind when we talk about church hurt; someone who was supposed to mentor, lead, and disciple, but instead was a source of pain. The good news is, you’re not alone and this kind of thing goes back to even the early church and Paul Himself. If not, he wouldn’t have left us advice on keeping a lookout for people that cause dissensions, tempt people away from Truth, create obstacles, commit sin, or live lifestyles contrary to biblical teaching.
And in a way, as people serving or leading the church, we need to be evermore diligent in looking out for individuals that Paul warns us about, whether we serve alongside them or whether there are flaws in our own character that need addressing. Because the simple fact is this: I have the same potential to hurt Christians new and old to the faith just as much as someone else does, and I shoulder just as much responsibility in bringing people closer to Christ instead of driving them away.
If there is a member of the church that is known to cause division or contribute to toxic church culture, part of our calling as servants within the Church is to correct that behavior and set it right within the community. Ultimately though, if that person does not turn away from being a source of toxicity within the church, the church is supposed to turn away from them. Why? Because people who love dissension more than Christ cannot serve Him. Essentially, they are not qualified.
What it comes down to is that a person like that ultimately loves their flesh, uses their influence over people more than Christ, and serves their own desires and attitudes. There is no place for that in the Church, and allowing those personalities to operate unchecked as a servant or leader of the church ultimately leads people away from Christ, deceiving those who are young in their faith and don’t yet have the discernment to know genuine Christ from those that are looking to selfishly gain using Jesus as the means to do so.
The fact of the matter is, whether you are a servant, a leader, or a simple member of the church, we all have the responsibility to make sure our church environment is healthy and in line with the Bible. If our call is to be salt and light to the world, like Jesus says in Matthew 5, then we ought to seriously take stock of not just the people serving and attending around us, but also of ourselves.
Are we representing Christ well in the Church? Are we helping to foster a healthy, righteous, and united church environment?
Are we interacting with people in love and respect as equals? After all, Christ spoke to us as a friend, not as a project manager.
Are we taking responsibility for our shortcomings in ministry? Are we constantly searching our own hearts and looking to Christ in prayer and study, allowing Him to convict us and mature us?
In all reality, once we become Christians, we become servants of the Gospel; meaning it becomes our responsibility to consistently pursue the Lord in order to transform ourselves even further into His image. We need to learn to be comfortable leaning into change that allows us to be more like Jesus, and we need to make sure we’re more and more aware that we’re always wearing that mark that we belong to Christ. As followers of Christ, mature believers, and servants in the church, the best way we can do that is to make sure we’re always looking to Him and allowing Him full access to our hearts, doing away with things in us that displease Him and training us to better be an example of who He is. That means that more than cultivating a platform, we need to be studying His Word. More than focusing on our image, we need to be in prayer.
We are always, always wearing our “letters,” and with that comes a great responsibility to conform ourselves to Christ’s image so that other people can be drawn closer to Him.
