If you want to make a difference, then you have to be different.

Recently, the well-known pastor JD Greear Tweeted, “If you want to make a difference, then you have to be different.” His Tweet also contained an image of one loan purple plant flowering alone in a full field some random bright yellow crop – the image was perfect for message – but, did the message mirror the illustration of the image?

Even though I’m a regular follower of Pastor Greear, his Tweet didn’t sit well with me – what does it mean to be different? Different from what? Different from who? Different in what way? To be fair, when considering differences, we have to consider standards or right and wrong – sadly, the lines between good and evil have become very blurry when it comes to society, culture, politics, churches, nationalism, social justices, etc – so, when anyone professes a need for difference, perhaps they should also define what that difference is.

The meaning of, “you have to be different” completely changes with each diverse perspective in the world around us – I believe Pastor Greear meant for the reader to be different than a sinful world, and to be set apart from the world in Christ-like ways.

So, what does it look like to be Christ-like? This is low hanging Biblical fruit – but it’s important to define – you see, not everything within our blurry, upon blurrier lines claiming to be Christ-like, is actually Christ-like.

To be Christ-like is to be loving, caring, charitable, humble, patient, kind, forgiving, sincere, truthful, compassionate, values and is accepting of persons (regardless of the person) – it’s important to remember that these Christ-like attributes are not stand-alone behaviors that we apply when conditions are acceptable to us – these attributes should be constants in our behavior (regardless of conditions).

So, let’s assume that “to be different” in the context of Pastor Greear’s Tweet means for us to be Christ-like (as defined above) – let us also assume, we are to be Christ like consistently all through the blurry lines of life – so, what should this consistent Christ-like behavior apply to?

Remember, it’s a mad-mad world out there – and we’ve effectively (and sadly) divided ourselves into many social, economic, political and legal camps – shocking as this may sound, Christ-like behavior does not fit well within many of our self-aligned camps.

Self-aligned camps fall into subsets sides of these many categories:  politics – police brutality – boarder crisis – hunger – homelessness – unjust legal systems – discrimination – equality – cost of living out pacing wages – unjust lending practices – crimes covered up in churches – military veterans – social injustice – unjust tax laws – Christian Nationalism – hate crimes – Critical Race Theory – truth in our history – racism – sexism – abortion – prolife/prochoice – firearms – the list goes on and on – and we keep being more and more divided.

For me, the take-away is, none of these camps should out weight the importance of Christ-like behavior – this should apply to all of us, regardless of our political position, economic status, culture, etc.

Another pastor I follow is Pastor Joey Anthony (@JoeyTAnthony) – a recent message of his spoke to our individual responsibility when it comes to how we see sin in our own lives – he stated, “It’s one thing to be honest about your sin, yet quite another to have brokenness because of it. If there hasn’t been brokenness over your sin, then there is no real heart change that has taken place.”

My first reaction to Pastor Joey’s statement was to consider how it applied to the sins of ‘others’ – this reaction is straight out of the politically right leaning, comfortable white Christian national,  proud to be only one kind of American playbook – this is important because it illustrates how our camps have evolved into positions of greater importance than our need to be Christ-like – Pastor Joey’s statement was speaking to MY sin and MY lack of brokenness – not the sins of others.

In the context of this thread, “you have to be different” may mean to get the hell out of our camps and focus on being Christ-like.