Do you want to feel like you belong? Have you had others tell you that you are not good enough? Have you been disqualified from joining a group? Have you been kicked out of a group? Was it because you could not do or refused to not do something?
There are many organizations that have restrictions of one kind or another to join them. Some have codes or rules to follow. If someone fails to follow them, they are kicked out of the group. If you have been in one of the groups and been kicked out, you may not like that organization.
There are groups who claim to be part of Christianity who do much the same. It has been going on for a couple thousand years. It was going on in the first century. The Apostle Paul warns the Colossians against such groups. He clearly states that we are not to allow these groups to disqualify us. His message can be taken two ways.
First, it can be viewed as not allowing them to make us think we are less because we do not belong to that group. They may state that we are lesser than them because we cannot perform some type of miracle or are unwilling to punish ourselves for our failures. They may tell us we are not fully following Jesus unless we follow specific rituals.
Second, they may lure us in to their group. We may become like them and think less of others who are not part of the group. We may fake our way through it, simply because we want to feel as though we belong to something special.
Paul tells us not to allow either case to happen. We are to know that we are part of the body of Christ. We are to be satisfied knowing that Jesus loves us. We are to understand that we are nourished by Jesus, we grow in Him, and that is enough. We don’t need to be part of a group that follows human rules that oppose Jesus.
I pray we all refuse to be part of elitist Christian groups. I pray we trust that being part of the body of Christ is enough. I pray each one of us will seek to be nourished and grow in Jesus. Do not be elitist. Do not let anyone disqualify you. You are part of the body. Be nourished by Jesus. Grow in Jesus.
Colossians 2:18-19 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, initiatory visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with a growth that is from God.
Marty Pressey 