Better Together Through Hebrewsಮಾದರಿ

United by Faith

Many of us are trapped in a self-imposed prison of isolation. And we are complaining about being alone. But the door is locked from the inside, and only we can unlock it.

We don’t intend to be alone. Even after admitting our need for others, the truth is we aren’t sure who we would even be able to connect with. The older we get, the more we learn about ourselves, and the more we isolate ourselves. Even with all of the different personality tests, self-help books, motivational talks, and other resources we use to learn more about ourselves and improve our lives, it seems with every instance of self-discovery comes greater alienation. 

So when I get my feelings hurt, when one person’s conflict style opposes mine, when someone votes differently than me, or when personalities clash, it’s easy for me to assume no one gets me.

While it seems we give some grace to those who are different than us personally and even politically, we often struggle to give grace to those who profess the same faith as we do. The problem with all of these dividing issues is we are alienating ourselves in the one place that should be most unifying: church. With all of our groups, cliques, philosophies, strengths, styles, denominations, and preferences, no wonder we wake up one day and feel alone. No wonder we say, “No one gets me.” In an effort to discover ourselves we’ve lost our community. In an effort to specify our preferences we’ve even lost our church.

Paul writes that many of our divisions were removed through Jesus:

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28 NIV

The beautiful imagery in this passage walks us through all the barriers in the temple. With each level, there are new boundaries. No Gentiles past this point. Now no women past this point. Now only the priest may enter. But when Jesus died and the temple veil was torn in two, the boundaries were removed. I love that the veil was torn from the top to the bottom—as if to say, this is from above and passed down. No more divisions. All are one in Jesus. 

Paul takes it even further in his letter to the church in Colossae. Look at the groups he includes in this passage:

Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Colossians 3:11 NIV

Paul says that in Christ, all of these barriers come down. If pious Jews and unclean Gentiles learned to coexist, then certainly introverts can put up with the shenanigans of extroverts. And if the refined Greeks could sit at a table with those just better than wild beasts, then surely Baptists and Pentecostals can coexist. Could it be what makes us different can make us better? The author of Hebrews seems to think so:

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 

Hebrews 4:1–2 NRSV

They were not “united by faith” so, therefore, the good news of Jesus couldn’t fully set in. Without community, the good news of Jesus becomes regular news that we’ve all heard before. The good news brings people together in a world where we’re all trying to set ourselves apart. What unites us is what overlooks and overcomes all of our differences. We all need somebody. And when we find our common ground in Jesus, we can truly be better together.