Courtesy of our pervasive identity politics, we Americans have found ourselves methodically subdivided into every interest group imaginable along political, religious, gender, race, heredity, etc. lines.

An unintended consequence of such thinking is that we view everyone as either “one of us” or “one of them/other.”

Is it any wonder that we can’t just get along with so many artificial fault lines dividing us?

Sadly, this identity-obsessed thinking has infected Christian churches as well — this must grieve God to no end. He went to a lot of trouble to bring humanity together not split them apart.

One of the great purposes of the “mystical Body of Christ” is to break down dividing walls and join people of disparate backgrounds together as one.

In Ephesians 2:11-22, the Apostle Paul wrote:

“Therefore, remember that previously you, the Gentiles in the flesh … were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the people of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who previously were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall … so that in Himself He might make the two one new person, in this way establishing peace; and that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the hostility … So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household …”

The genius of God’s redemptive plan for mankind includes granting every blood-bought believer in Christ citizenship in His heavenly kingdom.

While we retain our earthly citizenship from the country of our physical birth until our death, we belong eternally to a heavenly kingdom that will never end.

Jesus was once asked by the religious leaders of Israel where a believer’s personal loyalties should lie. In Matthew 22:15-22, He replied: 

“Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him (Jesus) in what He said … ‘tell us then, what do You think? Is it permissible to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?’… But Jesus perceived their malice and said … Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.’ And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, ‘Whose image and inscription is this?’ They said to Him, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then He said to them, ‘Then pay to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.’”

Bible commentator Bill MacDonald writes, “… the believer has dual citizenship. He is responsible to obey and financially support human government. He is not to speak evil of his rulers nor work to overthrow his government. He is to pray for those in authority. As a citizen of heaven, he is responsible to obey God. If there is ever a conflict between the two, his first loyalty is to God …”

Jesus’ followers were frequently brought before earthly authorities, which often pitted their loyalty to human laws against their loyalty to God.

Here is one such encounter from Acts 5:27-32:

“When they had brought them, they had them stand before the Council. The high priest interrogated them, saying, ‘We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this Man’s blood upon us.’ But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’”

Our “only” obligation is to God and man.

Today, Christians need to resist being forced into the secular world’s insistence on pitting us against one another.

Jesus set forth our obligations very clearly in Matthew 22:34-40: “And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him (Jesus) a question, testing Him: ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Again, quoting MacDonald, “This means that man’s first obligation is to love God with the totality of his being … the heart speaks of the emotional nature, the soul of the volitional nature, the mind of the intellectual nature, and strength of the physical nature … We should think of how very much we do love ourselves, of how much of our activity centers around the care and comfort of self. Then we should try to imagine what it would be like if we showered that love on our neighbors.”

How About You?

Do you realize that your “neighbors” include those with whom you may disagree?