2 Corinthians 5:16–17 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (ESV)

Galatians 6:14–16 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. (ESV)

The Church is having an identity crisis.

Someone said that 1100 Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America, and that may be true. But this is not the issue being addressed in the bible. If your native tongue is Spanish you will want to worship God in Spanish. No, the issue being called out as antichrist is the attitude of ethnic superiority.

The church was born in the synagogue and in the temple. Her Lord and Foundation was and yet is a son of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. His lineage traced back to Judah and his “son”, David. Jesus was a Jew and the early church was a largely Jewish church, ut it quickly expanded into the larger world of the gentiles. As the church met the world conflicts was almost inevitable. We saw it first right there in Jerusalem almost as soon as the Holy Spirit descended upon her at Pentecost.

Families take care of families, and the early church was a family church. But the Spirit was drawing men and women by the thousands into the fellowship and the widows with foreign roots were easily overlooked in the distribution of aid – and that’s why the church has deacons, to take care that no one is overlooked in the ministries of the church.

Jesus told his disciples to take the good news of reconciliation with God to the whole world, and take it they did. Within 40 years churches had been planted throughout the Roman Empire and was expanding into regions beyond. With growth came growth pains. A people doesn’t give up its sense of uniqueness overnight. The Jews had been the set apart and chosen people of God. It was hard to look at these gentiles, these foreigners, these babblers in strange tongues, as equals, as fellow children of God. But that is what they were!

So we have Paul writing to the churches those verses we read above. Circumcision doesn’t count! Uncircumcision doesn’t count! (Yes, some of the gentile Christians were seeing their freedom from Judaism making them “better” Christians than their tradition-bound brethren.) Look, Paul said, when you became a Christian you stopped being a Jew, or a Corinthian, or a Galatian, or a Roman, or any other ethnicity in all the world. When you were born again, when God made you new, you lost your ethnicity for a new identity all together. You identified with Christ, and with Christ alone.

And that brings us back home. The Church is made of men and women of every nation, ethnicity, language, height and weight. It is a reflection of the peoples of the world. But it is one Church, with one Father, and with one doctrine. It can never fracture along ethnic lines and still call itself the Church. There cannot be a White Church with White doctrine, and a Black Church with Black doctrine. The Church has little to say about ethnicity other than to say the color of your skin or the language you speak matters little or not at all. What matters is, do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you believe his Word? Are you a child of God and a citizen of the kingdom of heaven? Or are you American, or African, or Indian, or Chinese, or . . .

May we truly be one people serving one God and loving one another.