“Us and them” thinking occurs whenever we view people as
being in different groups with ourselves being in one of the groups, the “us”
group. In “us and them” thinking there is almost always some amount of conflict
between the groups. These groups may be based on many different factors:
ethnicity, nationality, beliefs, economic status, politics, etc. Often, “us and
them” thinking produces negative results like pride, envy, hate, prejudice,
discrimination, and even violence. Because of this, many people want to jettison
all “us and them” thinking. But is all “us and them” thinking is wrong? Is
there any type of “us and them” thinking that is actually helpful? You may be
surprised to see that there is a type of “us and them” thinking that permeates
the Bible and is a deeply embedded part of a Christian way of viewing the
world.
I want to begin by giving some examples of the harm caused
by distorted, unbiblical “us and them” thinking that I have personally seen.
Then I’ll share about the right kind of “us and them” thinking that is found
embedded in God’s Word.
Terrible Results of “Us
and Them” Thinking Gone Bad
The following is an account of something we experienced in
September, 1997, about a year after moving to the large city of Makassar,
Indonesia.
Our eyes began to
water and we began to sneeze. It was my
first, and so far only, experience with tear gas. But we were thankful for it. It meant the riot police were holding back
the angry rioters in front of our housing complex. Many of our neighbors had hung their Muslim
prayer rugs in front of their houses or had made little signs reading “Muslim
house” in hope that their houses would not become a target of the angry mobs of
rioters who were ravaging our city.
My wife and I had been
living in our new country, Indonesia, for about a year. We had rented a small house in a housing
complex that is behind a row of shops.
Some of those shops were owned by an ethnic minority group, Indonesian Chinese.
The Chinese in Indonesia are mostly non-Muslim and tend to be better off
economically. We could hear the rioters,
who were mostly from the Makassar people group. The Makassarese are almost 100%
Muslim, and the majority of them are very poor. The rioters were beating down
the steel doors of those Chinese owned shop-houses a block away. A mentally impaired Chinese man had killed
the daughter of a Makassarese professor at an Islamic college. This tragic
event had sent a spark into the dry timber of hatred and resentment which
existed between the Makassarese and the Chinese minority. Now there was rioting all across our city. It
went on for several days. During the rioting we could see plumes of thick,
black smoke rising from multiple points around the city. When the rioting
ended, the city looked like a war zone, with burned out vehicles in the middle
of once busy roads and many burned and damaged buildings. Lives had been lost.
You don’t have to move to Indonesia to find painful examples
of “us and them” thinking gone wrong. I’ve seen it here in the US as well. When
we moved back to the US, the first church I served in, like almost all churches
in Eastern North Carolina, was 100% one ethnic group. In this case, the church
was 100% white. Other churches in the area are 100%, or nearly 100% black. I told the church that I would be delighted if
in several years the racial make up of our church reflected the make up of our
community, which was 50/50 black and white. Some of the members fully agreed
with this vision, some were uneasy, and a small group fought against it. That
small, but influential, group began a two year long campaign of constant slander,
anonymous letters, and opposition which eventually led to me leaving the
church. It was a very painful experience. I understand the danger, harm, and
evil that “us and them” thinking can lead to.
The problem of twisted us versus them thinking is not new. Jesus
was addressing this problem when He told the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Paul faced this problem as he pleaded for Jewish and Gentile Christians to worship
and serve together in harmony in the churches he planted. Around the world and
throughout history, distorted “us versus them” thinking has led to racism, feuds,
fights, and wars. It is at the root of the holocaust and the Klu Klux Klan.
In light of all the evil related to viewing humanity as
consisting of “us and them,” you might think that all “us and them” thinking is
wrong and should be done away with. But we should not come to such a conclusion
quickly. After all, sexual immorality has been and continues to be a source of
immense suffering and evil around the world, but we would not want to do away
with all sex. Overeating is among the top preventable causes of illness, yet we
shouldn’t do away with food! So, we shouldn’t be surprised to find that despite
all the evil from wrong, twisted “us and them” thinking, there is another type of “us and them”
thinking that is right. In fact, this type of “us and them” thinking is deeply
woven into biblical teaching.
A Biblical “us” and
“them”
Over and over again we meet in the New Testament a way of
thinking that divides all people into two groups. Different words and images are used to
describe these groups:
1.) The many who
enter through the wide gate that leads to destruction & the few that find
the small gate that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14)
2.) The wise who
build on the rock & the foolish who build on the sand (Matthew 7:24-27)
3.) The wheat and the
weeds, which Jesus explains stands for “the sons of the Kingdom” and the “sons
of the evil one” (Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43)
4.) The good fish and
the bad fish, which Jesus explains stands for the “righteous” and the “wicked”
(Matthew 13:47-50)
5.) The sheep and the
goats (Matthew 25:32-46)
6.) Those “taken” and
those “left” (Luke 17:34-35)
7.) Those who believe
and those who do not believe (John 3:18)
8.) Those who are
Jesus’ sheep and those who are not Jesus’ sheep (John 10:25-28)
9.) Those who are
perishing & those who are being saved (1 Cor 1:18, 2 Cor 2:15)
10.) Those inside the
church and those outside, or “outsiders” (1 Cor 5:12, see also Col 4:5, 1 Thes
4:12, and 1 Tim 3:7)
11.) “Children of
God” & “Children of the Devil” (1 John 3:10)
12.) Believers and unbelievers,
also called “righteousness” & “wickedness”, and “light” and “darkness” (2 Corin 6:14-18, also see 1 Cor 6:6, 1 Cor
7:12-15, and 1 Cor 14:22)
13.) “Brothers” who
belong to the light and the day, and “others” who belong to the night and the
darkness (1 Thes 5:5-6)
14.) “Us” and “them”
(Eph 2:3 and 1 John 2:19)
We’ve only listed New Testament examples above, but this way
of seeing people is present in the Old Testament as well. It is seen in the
many verses in Psalms and Proverbs which contrast “the righteous” and “the
wicked” and a few stunning prophetic verses which look far ahead with clarity like
this one from Daniel:
NIV Daniel 12:2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust
of the earth will awake: some to everlasting
life, others to shame and everlasting
contempt.
What can we learn from these Bible examples? What is the nature of this division of people
into two groups? What are the
consequences of being in each of these groups?
Do these groups have certain characteristics? Can we know who is in each group? Can people “switch groups”? And, of great
practical importance, how should “we” think about and act towards “them”? Let’s look as some of the examples above and
try to answer these questions.
The Eternal
Importance of Which Group You’re In
One of the first things we notice is that which group you are
in is very important. One group is on a
road that leads to life. The other group
is on a road that leads to destruction.
One group is destined to be thrown “into the fiery furnace”, while the
other group will shine in the Kingdom of the Father. One group will receive eternal punishment,
the other eternal life. One group is
perishing, the other is being saved.
One Group Believes
the Gospel about Jesus and the Other Group Does Not
As noted above, the Bible uses many words and images to
portray this idea that all people are divided into two groups. One of the most common ways to refer to the
two groups is believers and unbelievers. Below are some passages that discuss believers and unbelievers:
NIV John 3:18 Whoever
believes in him is not condemned, but whoever
does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed
in the name of God's one and only Son.
Here we see the two groups.
One group is not condemned. The
people in this group believe in Jesus.
The other group is condemned.
They are condemned specifically because they do not believe in Jesus as
God’s one and only Son.
Next, let’s look as some passages where it is assumed the
readers (initially the church at Corinth) already have a worldview that
identifies people as being either believers or unbelievers, and evidently
already have a basic understanding of these groups:
1 Cor 7:12 To the rest I say this (I, not the
Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not
a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.
13 And if a
woman has a husband who is not a
believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.
14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through
his wife, and the unbelieving
wife has been sanctified through her believing
husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are
holy.
15 But if
the unbeliever leaves, let him do
so. A believing man or woman is not
bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.
NIV 2
Corinthians 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness
and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
15 What
harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
The above verses help us see that this understanding, this
way of seeing people as being in one of two groups, was so much a part of the
Christian worldview Paul had imparted to the Corinthian church, that he could
refer to believers and unbelievers without stopping to explain
who he meant.
Can
We Know Who is in Which Group?
Can we know who is in which group? To begin to answer this, let’s look back at
the verses in the last section from Paul’s two letters to the Corinthians. In these passages Paul is giving some practical
instructions regarding believers married to unbelievers, and believers being yoked
together with unbelievers. Now here’s a
question: how could anyone ever obey
these instructions if we don’t know who’s a believer and who’s an unbeliever?
In general, it seems like we are expected to know
who is in each group. But obviously
walking down the street as we pass strangers we can’t tell which group they are
in. The instructions and teachings about
relations between believers and unbelievers seem to apply to people whom we
know, not to strangers. Of course, you should know a person before you marry
them, and you should know them well enough to know if they are a believer or an
unbeliever.
But even when we know people well, can we really
be sure? One way to answer this question
is to say no, we cannot be absolutely, omnisciently certain. In fact, the Bible gives examples and
discusses cases of “false brothers” (2 Cor 11:26, Gal 2:4) and of people whom
we believed “belonged to us”, but in fact they did not really belong to us:
NIV 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none
of them belonged to us.
But we do not have to know with absolute certainty
who is in each group to obey the teachings of the Bible. In practice, when we know someone well we can
tell if they are a believer. If we know
someone we really well, we can feel certain and almost always be right. For instance, I know with a high level of
certainty that my wife is a believer, and if she were to pass away before me I
would take comfort in knowing that she would be with the Lord and that I would
see her again. In fact, the Bible says
we should take comfort in knowing that those who have “fallen asleep in him”
will be with the Lord (again implying that we know, in general, who is “in
him”).
This brings up perhaps an even more important
question about knowing who is in each group.
Can I know that I am in the saved group?
Can you? It turns out that we
can, and in fact one of the reasons some parts of the Bible were written is
specifically so that we can know we are in the “saved group”:
NIV 1 John 5:13 I write these things to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have
eternal life.
Obviously, from the verse above and others we have
already seen, one of the key ways we know that we ourselves or others are saved
is if we believe in Jesus. But it turns
out there is more to it, which brings us to the next characteristic of these
two groups.
One
Group Bears Good Fruit, and the Other Group Bears Bad Fruit
When God saves us, He has a purpose in mind:
NIV Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to
the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
God’s plan is for us to become like Jesus. He wants us to love like Jesus loves, to give
like Jesus gave, to forgive like Jesus forgives, and to do good like Jesus did
good.
As a result, when we are adopted into God’s
family, God begins a radical transformation in our lives. This transformation means we become more like
Jesus. It means we sin less and less,
and do good things more and more. Not
just our actions are changed, but the way we think, the way we feel, our
motivations, our very heart and soul.
While much of this change process happens in deep
places (our hearts, our soul, and our thoughts) which are not directly visible
to other people, it produces fruit that can be seen. And this fruit is primarily moral in
nature. That’s why we often read things
like this:
Col 3: 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs
to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and
greed, which is idolatry.
6 Because
of these, the wrath of God is coming.
7 You used
to walk in these ways, in the life
you once lived.
8 But now
you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice,
slander, and filthy language from your lips.
9 Do not
lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
10 and have
put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its
Creator.
(see also Rom 6:19, 1 Cor 6:9-11, Eph 2:2, Eph
5:8, Titus 3:3-5, 1 Peter 4:3-4)
In the passage printed above (as well as those
listed), we see that we used to live a life that was characterized by immorality,
but now we are being changed, in both our thoughts and practices, to be more
like Christ.
This moral change is not something that might happen if you really believe in
Jesus. It is something that certainly will
happen.
This certain change will result in us doing good
deeds. Thus, the believing group is
characterized by giving the hungry something to eat, giving the thirsty
something to drink, clothing the naked, inviting in strangers, caring for the
sick, and visiting those in prison. This
is what Jesus teaches in Matthew 25:
Matthew 25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in
his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly
glory.
32 All the
nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from
another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
33 He will
put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed
by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the
creation of the world.
35 For I
was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
36 I needed
clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison
and you came to visit me.'….
46 "Then they will go away to eternal
punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
In the above parable/teaching, Jesus again views
all people as being divided into two groups, which here are pictured as sheep
and goats. One group is known for good
deeds and will enter eternal life, and the other group is known for not doing
good deeds and goes away to eternal punishment.
But we must always remember that the good deeds we do, our own
righteousness, is not the basis of our salvation, rather it is evidence that we have been saved by
believing in Jesus who died for our sins and whose righteousness is credited to
us who believe.
Can
People Move from the “Perishing Group” to the “Being Saved Group”?
Praise God!
The answer is yes or else we would all be lost.
Colossians 1:13-14 For he has rescued us from the
dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son
he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
We all begin under the dominion of darkness, but
by God’s grace some people are rescued by God and brought into the Kingdom of the
Son he loves. This is made possible
because we are redeemed by Jesus’ work on the cross and our sins our forgiven.
A lot of these ideas are all brought together in
this passage from Ephesians:
NIV Ephesians 2:1 As for you, you were dead in
your transgressions and sins,
2 in which
you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the
kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the
cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the
rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
4 But
because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 made us
alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you
have been saved.
6 And God
raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in
Christ Jesus,
7 in order
that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,
expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8 For it is
by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it
is the gift of God--
9 not by
works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we
are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
prepared in advance for us to do.
In this passage we see again the Biblical way of
seeing people in two groups. Notice, for
instance, the “us” and “them” language in verse 3. We also see that all of “us” were initially
in “their” group, dead in transgressions and sin. We see again that we are saved by faith (by
believing), and we see again that once we enter this salvation we find that God
has prepared good works for us to do.
Speaking of good works prepared for us to do,
let’s move on to our next topic.
How
Do These Two Groups Relate to Each Other Here and Now?
We began with some examples of how ugly things can
get when we treat them badly. Over and over again we see examples of one
group resenting, hating, or being envious of, another group. But we are called to be different in
Christ. Yes, as we read our Bibles and
our thinking is shaped by the words of Scripture, we begin to see all people as
being in one of two groups: one group
believes in Jesus, is characterized by fruit of the Spirit, and will receive
eternal life; the other group does not believe in Jesus, is characterized by deeds
of the flesh, and is perishing. But we
also realize that we all were once in the perishing group, and only by God’s
grace have been rescued. And we also
know that every person we meet who is in the perishing group has the very real
potential to become believers and be saved.
And furthermore, God wants to use us
to help rescue them (Matthew 28:18-20,
1 Corinthians 9:22, 2 Corinthians 5:20).
So we
are called to love them. And this love will be expressed in many
ways. We tell them the good
news about God’s love. We seek to serve them and help them in many ways with the problems they face in this
world.
Loving them is
not an easy task. Until Jesus returns
there will always be strong opposition to us loving them. Some of them
will hate us, and violently oppose
us, and even sometimes kill us, as they did Jesus and many of His first
followers. When this happens, we remember the command of Jesus to love our
enemies (Matthew 5:44). Not that we
consider them our enemies (Ephesians
6:12), but sometimes they treat us as if we are their enemies.
Conclusion
While distorted versions of “us and them” thinking
have often caused great harm, there is a good, biblical version of “us and them”
thinking that is helpful, even necessary, for us to see humanity as God sees
it. This biblical “us and them” should motivate us to pray, give, work, and share in order to reach them with the love and truth of God.
Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .
