2:8 – Walls Divide. Love Multiplies

#faithbites #faithjourney walls

“Build the Wall”. “We Don’t Need A Wall”. These are refrains we hear more and more everyday. Maybe it’s not a wall but a fence or steel vs concrete. You can’t go more than a few scrolls on Facebook or through the news or in a conversation without someone talking about the wall. While, this is on everyone’s mind, this post isn’t about the political wall we are talking about. It’s the walls that we build between us and others not like us.

Merriam-Webster has 6 different definitions for wall as a noun. The two that I like are “a structure that serves to hold back pressure” and “a high thick masonry structure forming a long rampart or an enclosure chiefly for defense – often used in plural”. In essence something that is built to hold something back and to separate. A wall divides people, places, and things. Love multiplies people, places and things.

Christ died so all could have his presentsisn’t for the Jews or the gentiles or the good or the bad. It is for all peoples on God’s earth. How do we go from seeing people as others to seeing people as brothers?

Scripture

• 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
• By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. – Hebrews 11:30
• You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh^[a; rather, serve one another humbly in love. – Galatians 5:13

Reflection

The wall in our politics is polarizing. It has gone beyond a physical thing into a symbol. If you are for it, you are racist. If you are against it, you want an invasion of murders, rapists, and thieves to take over. Neither of these are true.

In our faith, we are called to be free and love each other, to serve one another, and to be one in Christ. These are words of multiplication. Marriages, families, love, celebration, sharing the word. All of these help to increase God’s population.

A pastor told me that if one person shares the word with another, and that person with another, and so on and so forth. Through exponential growth, we would have 6 billion believers in 17 years. Don’t ask me on the math, but imagine that. Imagine for a minute, if our fear of the other was turned into love of the other. If we used our money to help those who wanted to be one with us, rather than to divide.

In the end, God gave us all of this and it’s here. It is up to us to use his gifts to multiply them further and not divide.

(As a note, I don’t get too political here. But I will say I am for legal immigration, spending the time and money to improve of our system to allow for good legal immigration, and improvement to the asylum process and more. I am against us seeing those who are not citizens as the other).

Charge

Regardless of where you fall political, as a Christian, it is our job to love one another. Are you willing to take the step to follow God’s word and love your brothers and sisters? Look at your actions and see if you are multiplying for Christ or dividing for the world.

Prayer

Lord, help us to remember that we are love one another as Jesus loved us. Provide us the tools and strength to multiply that love in Jesus’s name rather than divide. Give us the knowledge that you created everyone one of us and all of us are your children. Amen