Wandering Crusader #290 Diverse Desires

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

2 Corinthians 6:17

Diversity, equity, and inclusion, the words flood our culture and spring from the lips of the people around us as if they are holy writ and to suggest otherwise is sheer blasphemy. In its day, Corinth was a very cosmopolitan city, a crossroads for races, religions, and cultures. So, it is not as though Paul was writing in a vacuum when he called for the church to “come out from among them”.

The modern concept of DEI as preached by political parties, society, and educational systems today have no place in Christianity. Which is not to say diversity, equity and inclusion are foreign ideas within the Church. In fact, the Church is the original practitioner of DEI. The very earliest gatherings of Jesus’ disciples were almost exclusively Jewish. The entry of Gentiles into the church and marking some Jewish practices as non-essential to salvation was a very big deal. Paul, the writer of our quote above, was at the center of the controversy speaking in favor of DEI.

The final decision was that whosoever will could be saved by faith and would then be member of the Church. Every soul was recognized as possessing equal worth in the sight of God. Moreover, the Church declared that each person had a gift, and a call to exercise their gift within the body of Christ. People of all races and backgrounds were included in the Church and subsequently ushered into the eternal Kingdom of God.

If all that is true, then what is the problem with DEI today? One has only to read the books of Joshua and Judges to see the answer. A person does not become a Christian by joining the church, accepting the scripture as true, or believing in God. A person becomes a Christian by a spiritual new birth. It is an experience involving surrender and repentance.

Christians love and value those without the experience of new birth. The world is welcome in the church, but the church is not to copy them or adopt their ways (that is the unclean thing). The movement of Christianity is from the world around us, into the Kingdom of God according to the terms set down by Jesus. The Church does not adapt to please those outside. It offers salvation from the condemned world and transformation through discipleship under the guidance of the Holy Spirit through Christ into divine fellowship. You cannot love the world, its practices, or its ideologies and remain true to God, who calls His people from the world to Himself.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Besides it is worldly origin, what is wrong with DEI as practiced in our society? I’ll answer that next post.