My Bible reading today caused me to consider a very serious, sobering thought about heaven, which was this: there’s going to be a lot of people there.
Think about that for a minute . . . a lot of people.
Who are those people?
The Bible tells us those in heaven are those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! That’s who they are, people from whom all blemish and spot of sin has been removed! But who are those people on this side of heaven? They are the tax-collectors, the Zaccheus’s of our locale. They are the stinky, the dirty, the poor whom perhaps we have told to sit “over there,” out of the way, where we can’t smell them or look at them.
We prefer to associate with people who draw crowds, not with those who chase crowds away. We like beautiful people. The truth of the matter is: heaven is going to be populated by people who don’t fit our preferences. Heaven is going to be filled with people God loves—without our consent. “Sunday Morning Worship” has become the most segregated hour of all time!
Take the homeless community, for example. For years I’ve noted the people on the street and how the Christian community responds, setting up churches and chapels “for them” “over there.” In all my years of ministry, I’ve only seen one person from the street dare to walk through the doors of a church and survive the entire service unscathed by attendees.
Monty was a kind of Zaccheus to me. He hid in the bushes until the service started and tried to quietly enter and sit at the back. He was intercepted by a deacon, who was literally showing him the back door until I saw what was going on. I took Monty back into the service where he heard the gospel preached and that very night accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. He was baptized and discipled by two men of our street ministry team, one of whom got him an apartment for three months until he got back on his feet, so to speak. Monty was a changed man. For a long time I felt like sticking my tongue out at that deacon.
Jesus found Zaccheus up a tree and went to his house, where the man demonstrated was true saving faith was. He tore down his god of money and gave back what he had taken. He demonstrated true repentance and saving faith. Monty, like Zaccheus replaced his gods for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Monty, like Zaccheus no longer bowed down to a god of his own making. They blessed God with their mouths instead of taking His name in vain. They both made a point to worship God in spirit and truth. They no longer killed with their lips, but gave blessing and testimony instead. Their lust was removed and experienced true love. They stopped stealing and began their confrontations with truth. Coveting was no longer an issue because they found everything for life and godliness in Christ Jesus.
Most difficulty for the church lies in the inability to overcome that lie in the areas of finance, race, culture, gender, theology, society and the ever-present generational gaps. There are dozens of ways one church can be segregated. The sad fact is that the local church is a microcosm of the universal church. Even sadder is the fact that the family is a microcosm of the church! If a family has difficulties getting along in these areas, is it any wonder that when families come together for worship that the difficulties continue?
How does a family treat a member who has burn-marks in his pockets (can’t hold on to money)?
What reactions are seen and heard when a brother takes a sister of another color for a bride?
Who in the fam likes to play games and get rowdy, and who would rather sit and talk?
What does a family do when so-and-so goes to this church and so-and-so goes to that church and so-and-so would rather skip church for the sake of a family reunion?
You get the idea.
Now, God, who makes heaven all it is, is impartial. He is the great equalizer, in whom is no Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free. What does He think?
Consider Matthew. You remember him. He’s the tax collector whom Jesus called to be a disciple. Who likes a tax collector? Nevertheless, Jesus changed his eternal destiny because Matthew responded to Jesus. “So what!” one may think. Go back and look at Matthew 9 at Matthew’s call. Notice, that Matthew begins his testimony with Jesus healing a paralyzed man. “When the Jewish scribes accused Him of blasphemy for claiming to have the authority to forgive sins, He said to them, “
Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, and walk’?” He wanted them to know that His miracles testified to His deity. As God, He could as easily forgive sins as He could heal diseases. Immediately after that account, Matthew gave the account of his own call. It’s as if he wanted his own salvation to serve as an illustration of Christ’s ability to forgive even the vilest of sinners.”
[i] We get to spend eternity with those who were paralyzed, with tax collectors and other despicables.
I think part of our problem is that we have lost the awe of our own salvation and take God for granted. We would rather be rich, be successful and hold onto what wealth we have than be humble.
James 1:19-27 is our text. Here we find that favoritism or partiality has no place in those truly saved. He implies that if we are partial with those around us, then we question the grace of God that brings salvation to all men! If we are partial with others, we hold our own faith partial! He says that partiality is sin and the law convicts us as transgressors (see v. 9). How is it evil? Partiality allows us to protect our self-interest and is driven by our motivation to gain some kind of advantage and self-glory. And what is sin but that which falls short of the glory of God?
The early church was a mixture of rich and poor, mostly rich. Interestingly, James is writing to Christians who are scattered, dispersed, both rich and poor. The common denominator is they are persecuted and are being spread out; yet, they hold a strange behavior among themselves of segregating one another based on finances or social standing! James has to remind them that the poor are not to be shunned or treated any differently than a wealthy man with gold rings. James says to them, “
Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” (2:5) The rich and the poor must receive equal treatment.
What we are considering then is not the alleviation of poverty nor the distribution of wealth. That is communism. What we are considering is eliminating the sin of impartiality!
Matthew 22:34–40, “
But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
To eliminate the sin of impartiality, the first and greatest commandment must be kept: loving God with all your heart, soul and mind! The other commandment is loving neighbor as you love yourself! This is not a mandate for self-love, for self-love is what gets us into the sin of impartiality; rather it is a mandate to love others with the love they would loved to be loved with by others! Consider what is said concerning those who love themselves in 2 Timothy 3:2-5: “
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”
No doubt you’ve heard the story of Mahatma Ghandi, the leader of the Indian Nationalist movement against British rule, considered to be the father of his country (India). He says in his autobiography that in his student days he was truly interested in the Bible. Deeply touched by reading the gospels, he seriously considered becoming a convert. Christianity seemed to offer the real solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India. One Sunday, he went to a nearby church to attend services. He decided to see the minister and ask for instruction in the way of salvation and enlightenment on other doctrines. But when he entered the sanctuary, the ushers refused to give him a seat and suggested he go and worship with his own people. He left and never came back. “If Christians have caste differences also,” he said to himself, “I might as well remain a Hindu.”
Philippians 2:3-4 says that we should be “
of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”
* * * * *
I was hungry, and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger.
I was imprisoned and lonely, and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release.
I was naked, and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick, and you knelt and thanked God for your health.
I was homeless, and you preached to me the spiritual shelter of God’s love.
You seem so holy, so close to God, but I’m still very hungry, lonely and cold.
**********
[i]MacArthur, John. Drawing Near. Includes indexes., May 23. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1993.
