What is prohibited in our churches is a post about what we should refuse within our churches as far as things that divide us.
“We”, as in Christians, the redeemed, are a group that should be working to edify one another. While it is not wrong or sinful to have opinions and views on what is going on in this world, we should be very clear about one thing. The priority for us as a Christian should be our relationship with Christ. That should come first before any other “thing” in our lives.
Satan sidetracks us into non-essential, non-spiritual things
This is simply a reality of life. It always happens. Why do people not care about church, the spiritual, their salvation, etc? The answer is because they are too tied up with other “stuff”. That other stuff is often surviving economically, their needs sexually, etc. Satan enters into their minds and changes their thinking so that whatever the other thing is has a higher priority than the spiritual. Jesus sent the disciples out to buy food and when they returned, Jesus refused to eat because he had another priority at the moment that was higher than physical nutrition. It was the work of his Father in heaven in the case of saving the Samaritan woman.
The key thing here is that God through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God (Jesus John 1:1) should be setting your priorities. This is not something for extreme religionists or ministers, but for everybody.
Politics
In many churches, they take on a political nature of a particular political party. So let’s examine this. Will politics save us? No. The reason why it won’t save us is that politics is not a substitute for religion. God sees our basic problems as all relating to our sin problem. He solves that spiritually through being born again and living the Christian life. Politics see itself as the Messiah that is going to solve all of our problems through promoting certain people, policies, and political parties. Do not be deceived! These things may have spiritual principles and issues involved in them, but they do not substitute for the spiritual.
Many times we do not understand what the church is supposed to be. It is a workshop for sinful Christians to come and refine themselves in the image of Christ. What many church people do is to put a sign and guard outside a hospital, saying “NO SICK PEOPLE ALLOWED HERE!” That is stupid. That is exactly who should be in a hospital (besides those who minister to these sick people).
So the first thing a church needs to project into the community and that is because this is what inside itself, it is this, is that all are welcome. Barring those who would disrupt and derail the spiritual activities going on in the services and in the church environment, we should welcome all people. Note that we ourselves become those that disrupt what the church is trying to do many times by taking God’s time and opportunity to force our political views on others in God’s house.
Essentially, we should welcome all people, and we should be very reserved in extremism. We do not judge our brethren. We may believe and act differently, but we give them breathing room to spiritually grow and conform to the image of Christ without us making life difficult for them. Likewise we should also be aware that the difference between us and other brethren may well be that we are not understanding the spiritual principles, so the problem is in us, not them.
Can you really say that you love some brother or sister in your church that is of an opposing political party? Would you say you love them as much as some brother or sister with your same political views? This is a sticky point that few can maintain their own integrity before the Lord.
My personal observation is that all politicians wish for power. That is their basic most drive. That is not right. It is sinful. Probably all politicians fall into this category. We follow Christ. He teaches us to serve, not dominate. Note that servants are invisible. You do not notice them very much. Yes they are there and visible, but good servants do not promote themselves, they do lust after the limelight, and they are humble. I would like to see humble politicians. Frankly, Satan has made it so that they will not get elected. Being humble means not “promoting” yourself. What do they do in an election? They promote themselves putting their names and images all over.
So no matter what political position you take, you can be sure that by being in politics, that person is disqualifying himself by how he or she got there. From there it goes downhill.
Jesus Christ is our Messiah Savior. What makes him our Savior is the fact of who he is, what he is. That perfect sacrifice extends to being a perfect example for us. Is your politician like Jesus? Really?
Health issues
For the longest time, I saw this prohibited topic as singular in the church. Today, health issues are not taking a place beside politics. Covid has changed all of that. Frankly, one’s political views are their own responsibility, and so with health issues. We have no right to intervene in the health of other people except to pray for their health as good Christians.
If somebody “lapses” in their protection of their health, this should not be a cause for division. When we take a step “back” and study the bigger picture, the Lord is in total control over our world. (Listen those who different with me on the politics point). Sickness and death come by means of our own sins. There is little we can do to stop it. The most energetic attempts will only delay what is inevitable. If we live long enough, we will die from some kind of a health issue. Note that “spiritual people” will also die just like the most heathen pagans. There is no escaping the judgment of God. Therefore we should take the angle that we pity those who are sick, and we should empathize with them, “suffer with them”, and we should pray for and help them. That is a non discriminatory statement. No matter if the person is saved or sinner and lost to hell, we should empathize with them, because we too will die one day. We too are under the grinding pressure of sin on our bodies and lives. There should be no haughtiness in our hearts because we have some secret truth in staying well. You exercise, yes, that is good. But does that make you better than other people? Do not healthy people also get cancer and die?
Simply put, Satan wants to divide us against one another. God unites us through salvation so that we can support and help one another, and Satan wants that support and fellowship (edifying) to stop. This is how he does it.
What is prohibited in our churches