Religious One-Upmanship

I recently noticed something about when devout Christians interact from different churches. Particularly with men there is often competitive attempts “to lead” or to dominate the conversation? It sometimes seems like a passive-aggressive religious one-upmanship.

Perhaps we think “I’m not following that guy so I’ll one-up his spirituality with my own.”

This is a tangible display of the division in the modern church system. If you pay attention you can see this reinforced almost everywhere in Sunday morning sermons.

Spiritual submission is typically only taught in context to our preferred “pastors”. Teachings on love and submission and sharing Christ with those who don’t think like us is almost unheard of.

Leadership is emphasized but for the purpose of adding to the numbers of the preferred pastor’s church or denomination. “If you are loyal to me you can lead for me and we’ll agree tell others it is for God.”

Don’t be deceived, this “church system” that we have inherited is not from our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes the Lord uses people while within the system but that is because he is loyal to his people. Someone else controls the system and he needs this one-upmanship among us in order to remain in power. You can see this if and when you try to draw attention to it how you are treated. Draw attention to these facts too effectively and you quickly get labeled. You may lose friends and/or be encouraged to leave the group.

The Ecclesia of Jesus Christ

The ecclesia that Jesus Christ is building is centered and founded on him only. He is not only the periodic topic of the sermons. He is not a mascot that we are impressed with from afar. Every member seems obsessed with him and are free to proclaim him openly. There is mutual submission among the members and the guiding rule is love for all interactions. The guiding rule is not loyalty to a certain pastor or denomination.

“It is important that a distinction be made between the assembly as defined by the New Testament and churches as they are known today. Compared with the pattern of the assembly of believers as described in the New Testament, institutional churches fall far short.”
― Henry Hon

To hear more about this topic go to my 3 part post series beginning here about gathering in the name of Jesus alone.