Free From the Pain of Ostracism

Some weeks after I had submitted myself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, my family and I visited a Roman Catholic family.  We had been invited to lunch in celebration of one of their children who had that morning made his first communion, a rather auspicious occasion in the eyes of Roman Catholic people.  This particular family are very religious, being proud of the fact also that there are a couple of nuns in their midst.  Upon inviting us inside, the wife noticed changes in me.  I was a different person than the one they’d always known and she said to me, “Roger. What’s happened?  You haven’t found God?”  I said, “Yes.  I have actually.”

Instead of her reaction to that response being one of, “Bless God,” or similar, it was one of disdain and nothing more was said about the matter.  But from that day on to this day twenty-five years later, our relationship has never been the same.  In fact it was here in this relationship that I first began to get some insights into the reality of ostracism, even if only mildly so.  There have been countless and far deeper and more brutal experiences with other religious people since, but that was the beginning. Being ignorant of the real differences between Biblical Christianity and Roman Catholicism in those days, it was an eye-opener for me, given that they would say Jesus Christ is their Lord too.

Years later, when I took the gospel message of the Lord out into the streets of my suburb, I was to re-encounter  similar responses and worse, not only from Roman Catholics, but also Anglicans (Episcopalians), Protestants and Jehovah Witnesses. These people were more insulting and rude than any so-called heathens or godless I met out there. As religious people, they made the others look like choir boys by comparison. The Scriptures tell us that “…. all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” Romans 8:28.  Interesting words, “the called.”  They began to make sense for me on the streets.

Everyone is called, but few there are who will respond in the manner that God requires. This knowledge helped me to help others who were experiencing the same thing from their husbands, wives, children or parents. Insults, the silent treatment, family arguments, being shut out of the family or told to leave home; this was the on-going experience for some and a few could not for the life of themselves figure out why. Here they were experiencing the reality of the Lord, His forgiveness, His love, His peace – all the things their families did not have, but they didn’t want to know. Yet, they were very religious people at the same time.

I can still see that perplexed look of, “Why is this happening to me?”- on the faces of young people in their mid-teens to early twenties.  Some of them told me there wasn’t much love for them in the home in the first place, but now there was even less.  There are no easy answers for anyone experiencing ostracism.  The big picture is:  there is a devil called Satan and he hates God.  He hates all God’s people.  He hates the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Why?  Because Jesus has defeated Him with His death at the cross and His resurrection, which now means He’s put him out of action. 

It is Satan’s plan to keep all people from all Biblical knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and so the smartest, most efficient tactic he has come up with is to offer the world religion.  God didn’t invent religion, that’s Satan’s idea.  God invented reality and relationship and He wants us to live in both with Him.  Satan lost both with God, therefore he is working overtime to ensure people don’t gain it either.  For all those who do, he ostracizes.  And, his most effective, efficient agents for this ostracism are religious practitioners.  Yes, he uses the non-religious too, but he’s less effective with them, because he knows we expect it from them.

That’s one simple overview of why we suffer ostracism.  But how does it really work together for our good?  One answer today.  When born again Christians go through the painful experience of ostracism there is nowhere else for us to go but to our knees in prayer because there is no one else to go to but God.  That’s God’s plan.  God uses the pain of ostracism to strip us down from all that we are and think we are.  He uses the pain of ostracism to make us non-dependent upon ourselves, our knowledge, our qualifications, our reputations, cleverness – whatever.  Self-reliance is out the door for us, so far as God is concerned.

The Bible tells us God calls us saints.  So, what He calls us He’s going to make us.  To be stripped of ourselves is part of that deal.  When we begin to see self as God sees it from His perspective, no longer do we want to hold onto it from our perspective.  Jesus has told us that without Him we can do nothing John 15:5.  Until He strips us down to show us who we really are, we don’t believe that statement too much in spite of how much we are fond of saying, “Amen” to it when we hear it mentioned in those sermons.  All religious practitioners are self-reliant; all reality practitioners become Christ-reliant.

God uses the pain of ostracism to strip us from all reliance upon all other people.  Whether this be in the home, at work, reliance upon bosses, work mates, fellow Christians, ministers, pastors, elders, prime ministers, presidents, kings, queens, state & federal governments – everything.  Yes, we are to love them, honor them, obey them, co-operate with them, pray for them and assist them.  But, we are not to rely on them for our spiritual, mental, moral or physical well-being.  We are not to rely on them for our job security, financial security or any other form of security.  God alone is to be our Source in all things.  If we don’t experience the pain of ostracism in this we will never experience this truth.

To be stripped of all self and people-reliance is a glorious blessing because the alternative is, we now become clothed with God-reliance.  Just as the New Testament apostles had to be stripped of all self and people-reliance before they became useful in the hands of God, so do all who confess from their heart that Jesus Christ is Lord.  That’s the difference between the religious and the real.  The religious will often confess the same with their mouth and deceive themselves that they’re part of God’s plan, but it’s not so.  If it were any different they too would experience the pain of ostracism rather than the pleasures of meting it out.

God-reliant Christians are a spiritually empowered, spiritually authoritative people.  They are led by the Holy Spirit, they know they are the sons or children of God Romans 8:14 and they frequently experience the Holy Spirit bearing witness with their spirit that this is so Romans 8:16.  Under the Spirit’s guidance and anointing they discern the voice of the Lord and will act accordingly regardless of any known circumstances and unknown outcomes.  Under the same Spirit, they’re quick to discern Satan and his minions as they ever so subtly seek to draw us back to self-reliance, people-reliance, besetting sin, institutionalized religiosity and so on.

Does this make God-reliant Christians perfect, sinless paragons?  No.  But it makes us free.  Free to become the people God created us to become.  Free from slavery to the opinions, expectations, pressures and approvals of secular man and free from the same in religious men, including freedom from their man-made doctrines, traditions and practices.  And best of all – whilst we may never be free from ostracism – we become free from the pain of ostracism. The Bible declares that if we endure (suffer) we shall also reign with the Lord 2 Timothy 2:12.  If we wish to reign with the Lord here on earth as well as in eternity, then we must be prepared to suffer here on earth just as He did.  That’s the way God has ordained it.

All true Christians are to become Christ-like.  Religious practitioners don’t mind identifying themselves with, “Jesus the good man who went about doing good, helping people etc.”  They have no problems with that, especially lovers of the social gospel.  They love that kind of Jesus and fill their heads with all sorts of imaginations about Him, identifying themselves to be Christ-like people.  But they want nothing to do with identifying with the biblical Jesus who was constantly maligned, ridiculed, gossiped about, cast out – and ostracized! 

That kind of suffering brought maturity and perfection to Jesus, to the point where on this earth He relied upon nothing and nobody but God the Father and God the Holy Spirit for all aspects of his earthly life.  And suffering has been designed by God to do exactly the same for us.  There’s no getting away from it.  Hebrews 12:8 confirms this by telling us that if we refuse to go through suffering, we are not legitimate people of God, but rather, we are illegitimate.  It’s one thing to experience ostracism by religious people, it would be something else altogether to experience the same from God.  “….we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:22.  “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” Philippians 1:29.