From the best I can tell from a quick web search, the term “like-minded” originated in the 1500’s. The term is meant to describe a group of people that have similar opinions, ideas, or interests. The world has made a business out of helping us seek out like minded individuals. For many it is the determining factor in choosing our friendships, business partners, schools, churches, etc. A search of the term “like minded” pulls up 129,00,000 results in .5 seconds.
The desire for us to be surrounded with like minded people is so great that we are now able to build our own like minded mini worlds through the technology of social media. We do not even have to purposely intend to do so, those controlling our sites attach cookies to our searches and through them begin to build a profile on us and set us up to direct us to other articles and items that are like those we intentionally searched out. We are directed to other individuals and organizations that are like us so that we can grow our like minded world even larger. This of course sounds like perfectly good system… but is it really?
“Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.”
Genesis 11:1-8
There is a danger in building our like minded mini worlds. The danger is that in our like minded mini worlds we become close minded to those outside of it. The more crowded our like minded worlds become the more convinced we are that our opinions, our ideas, our dispositions are the only ones that are valid and of value and everyone else’s are flat out wrong. Then we begin to exalt ourselves and look down on others… and even begin to work to discredit and destroy them.
We see this over and over again through out history. We see this all over the world. We see this in nations with caste systems and tribal divisions. We see this in the church with denominations. We see this in our schools (and churches) with cliques. God commanded us to scatter and fill for a reason.
I am currently teaching through the book of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. In our study this past week we were in 1 Kings 5 and in this chapter we were able to see how David formed a friendship with Hiram King of Tyre. This friendship was one of mutual respect and because of it when Solomon became King, Hiram immediately sent word to him to acknowledge him as the new King of Israel. Solomon then extended a request of Hiram asking him to provide timber and skilled workman to help him build the house where the name of the Lord would dwell.
The nation of Tyre had been blessed with great skill and knowledge in cutting timber and engraving stone and because of the relationship that David had formed with this nation, with this King, despite their cultural differences, the nation of Israel would now be blessed to not only utilize these skills, but to learn them. Through this friendship David had the opportunity to teach Hiram about the God of Israel. David choosing to build a relationship with this King and this nation opened a door for this nation to be able to know the One True God and now to even become a part of the construction of the house where His name would dwell.
As I studied in these chapters this week I was also learning from a Pastor friend of mine, Daryl Little, as he spoke on the Black Christian and White Christian Dilemma in the United States. As I listened to him share he spoke of how God has graced different people groups and different cultures with different gifts and talents and we lose when choose to discredit and disassociate with others simply because they are different from us. Too often we form our own like minded groups and our learning stops. We have decided this is the box we like and we refuse to step out of it… and even worse we refuse to allow our knowledge of God to grow outside of it.
The beauty and glory of the house of God would have suffered had Solomon been unwilling to reach out to the Sidonians. God had gifted these workers… for every good and perfect gift comes from above (James 1:17). In Genesis 1:27 the Word clearly tells us that, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Therefore every single individual that has ever lived and will ever live was and will be created in the image of God.
Let this sink in a bit…
Look at the people around you. Look at the people around the world. Look at their many gifts, their many talents, their many features, and realize that not one of them has ever had the same DNA yet each and every one of them is an image bearer of our Creator God. Try and wrap your mind around this concept and in doing so realize that from the beginning of creation until this day including every present child that is being and will be being formed in their mother’s womb, each and every one of them bears the image of God. This my friend is how vast the depth of the reality of the person of our God is…
In 2 Chronicles 2:5-6 Solomon writes, “The house which I am about to build will be great, for greater is our God than all the gods. But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him?“
Solomon wrote to the King of Tyre and said I’m building this house, but I cannot contain this God. All I can do is maybe use it as a place that we can come and sit before Him and offer up our prayers and praise. Is this not what God calls us to still do today?
Yet instead we form our groups based on our own opinions and ideas and traditions and we call ourselves inclusive because we invite others in, until that is they refuse to conform or they begin to disrupt with differing opinions and ideas and, well, then we force them out. We may do it in a discrete way by beginning to exclude them in small ways or we may do it in outright you can’t sit here ways… but make no bones about it, we find a way to remove them.
We want them out because they now challenge our mini world and make our box uncomfortable. In doing so we remove an image bearer of God. We lose an opportunity to grow in the grace and knowledge of God. We lose an invitation to see life through another set of eyes. We even lose an opportunity to shine the light of Christ into the depths of a heart that perhaps has believed a lie and we lose an opportunity to allow the Spirit of God to teach us how to fight and defeat that lie in their heart and the hearts of others. If we are so insecure in our own convictions that we can’t even listen to another’s then perhaps we need to question the foundation on which we are trying to stand.
God has called us to go into all the world and make disciples. This requires that we step outside of our own like minded worlds and willingly and purposely enter into other worlds that the Lord Himself will show us.
“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you,'”
Genesis 12:1-2
We are to step outside our own like minded worlds and step into Him. We are to be united in Him. We are to have the mind of Christ. We do not need to settle down in our like minded worlds, we need to first be noble minded.
Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
Acts 17:11
There is so much to learn. Our God is so great and the expanse of His presence is beyond our comprehension. I love reading the experiences of other believers around the globe from other nations. I love reading and hearing all the mighty and amazing things that the Lord does in and through and for them so that He can use them for His glory to reach hearts for Christ.
I heard a Christian man in our area make a statement one time. He was at a location where someone had just died and their was a group of Christians that this now dead man knew who came and asked for just five minutes to pray over the man before they pronounced him dead and took him away. The Christian man then shared how had that man risen from the dead he would have fled from that place. I thought to myself, this is the box we live in. We have placed our God in a box that no longer believes He can raise the dead.
Our like minded worlds make our God so very small because they become more about us, our opinions, our ideas, our dispositions, our will, and our ways… and less and less about Him. They become less about Him, because to know Him is to grow in Him, and to grow means we have to get a bigger box because He just wont fit in the current one we have constructed for Him. The danger begins as we start to move Him out so we can make room for more like minded people who will fit in our box and we soon discover that in our like minded worlds we no longer talk about Him, but we talk about everyone who doesn’t fit in our box… and any praise we claim to give Him is actually not praise at all but is really just self-exaltation.
The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
Luke 18:11
Is being with like minded individuals just wrong? Absolutely not! God commands us to be of the same mind. He commands us to come out from the world and to be separate and united in Him. He demands that we be made complete and of the same mind and the same judgment (1 Corinthians 1:10). However, He commands all of this with a purpose. When God calls us to be like minded it is so that with one accord and with one voice we might glorify God.
For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.
Romans 5:4-7
The purpose of becoming like minded God’s way is to destroy all other divisions so that we can see past our differing opinions, ideas, and dispositions. Becoming of the same mind with one another according to Christ is to teach and enable us to easily move past any cultural differences and be united in our praise to the One who so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son for every whosoever that will believe.
And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”
Revelation 5:7-10
Precious one, let us step out of our own little worlds and break out of whatever box we have constructed for ourselves because our God is bigger. I don’t know about you, but I want to know Him. I want to grow in Him. I want to serve the God that can’t be put in a box and be a part of the church that the gates of Hell can’t stand against. I want to believe in the God that still raises the dead.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:33-36