A composite of comments from several gracEmail subscribers says: “I think you are a bit far-out to be a representative of the Churches of Christ. You seem always to be kicking the walls of what is generally accepted within the brotherhood. Might you simply be overreacting to some legalistic and sectarian extremes you have encountered in the past? Do you really think some other group has the truth? If so, why don’t you join it and leave us alone?”
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Some people feel the need to psychoanalyze others whose thinking does not fit what they expect, and you are welcome to join the crowd. Everybody deals with their heritage in some way — adding to, deleting from, endorsing or rejecting in whole or in part, for a wide variety of reasons good, bad and indifferent (John 8:33; Phil. 3:4-14). I share this human situation. And I don’t pretend to represent anyone but myself.
Yes, wall-kicking is part of what I do, but my wonderful Church of Christ family needn’t feel particularly singled out in that regard. Had I been born into any other part of the Christian household, I am confident there would also have been walls which would have proven to be irresistibly kickable. Every Christian group has some of the truth and not one of them has it all. The difference between some of us and some of the rest of us lies in whether we are content to guard and advocate the truth we already have, or whether we also wish to learn the truths our Christian neighbors discovered before we personally came along. God’s categories are often larger than ours, and he calls us to pitch a bigger tent (Isaiah 54:2).
You will agree with me that the Lord’s appraisal is the only one which finally matters. With that in mind, I hope to be found faithful, with reliance only on his salvation, wrought once for all time in the perfect atonement accomplished by the Son of God, our Savior. He is the truth, in whom we find grace and truth (John 14:6; 1:17). Grace be with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible (Eph. 6:24).