I’ve noted a few times recently that it often doesn’t help the church to just spend time addressing what’s wrong in other churches. And I want to own that - I know that. But sometimes we have to know what’s wrong in order to know what is right.
If the church tells us that we need to put America first, then it is not God’s church.
If the church tells us that some people are in and some people are out, then it is not God’s church.
If the church tells us that any politician or any leader or any celebrity is more important than the least of these, then it is not God’s church.
We can only know what is good, right, and true because we know who Jesus is. Jesus, to use Paul’s language, makes the invisible God visible. Jesus is before all things and all things are held together in him, by him, and for him. Jesus is first.
And that makes all the difference.
