Since we as the church purport to carry the Good News of Christ, we all face a test from God:
Are we wittingly, or unwittingly, seduced into driving a wedge in the skilled servant work of our local body with our hidden agendas?What are some of these hidden agendas?
Portraying God as a keeper of personal labels; the "worse" the labels, the greater the rejection by God.The truth is, Jesus hung out with the "worst" label-makers of all. He knew their hearts were ripe for receiving His forgiveness. Only the self-righteous (the Pharisees and Sadducees) put themselves out of reach of God's transforming love; Jesus labelled them in Matthew 12:34:
You brood of vipers...for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.Another hidden agenda begins with similar reasoning with which the serpent seduced Eve (Genesis 3):
Surely God would not speak His lessons through a person who does not meet "my" standards.Yet we are inspired by the prostitute Rahab's courage in hiding God's spies; she, in fact, is in the very lineage of Jesus (Joshua 6:25, Matthew 1:5).
Perhaps most divisive of all:
We undercut and undermine the spiritual authority with which God has empowered our church leadership.A church who has adopted God's agenda for their body lives by the anthem in Acts 5:
"...for if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop [it]; you will only find yourselves fighting against God."The test is our heart's agenda. Are we the road, the gravel, the weeds or the good earth in Matthew 13?
Only good earth avoids the seduction of dissension.
No weapon formed against good earth will prosper.
