Paula

Once again, I must ask why any believer would demand to keep a place of superiority over other believers, a place granted not by scripture but by society. Jesus had all authority as God but laid it aside to serve and save the world. He humbled Himself– a lesson yet unlearned by many professing the name of Christ, on many issues. This same Jesus said “not so among you” to all His followers, yet today many still clamor to see “who is the greatest”.

Egalitarianism is about equality, not superiority or rights or chains of command. Equality is the ideal Christian relationship, not a sin or a vice. Those who seem to loathe equality need to ask themselves why. Why does any mere human try to play God to another? Why would any believer even desire such a thing? Why do male supremacists cling so jealously to position and express so much fear of losing it– yet, ironically, try to accuse those who object to it as being the ones seeking position?

Hierarchy is the way of the world, the way of other religions. But “love does not demand its own way”, and “without love, I am nothing”. We are all spiritual siblings, with only Jesus as the “firstborn”. The rest of us are all on the same level. So for any to claim otherwise, to seek preeminence, to view social standing as “something to be grasped”, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what Christianity is all about.

It is time for Christians to “remember the height from which you have fallen”, to “return to your first love”. The one who loves is finished with pride and prejudice, and filled instead with service and sacrifice. We must follow the example of Jesus in this.