What are you hatching up?

Watching a baby chicken slowly, laboriously break its way free from the egg engulfing it is an amazing thing to watch.

With a hunger for life, the little creature struggles valiantly to escape from its shell to enter into a free life.

When I was a kid, there was a period of time my family lived on a small farm in Northern California. The place was complete with the “standard” farm animals, including chickens. For some reason, some of the hens wouldn’t always “brood” on their nest of eggs, so we had to place some of the eggs in an incubator to provide the necessary consistent heat so the eggs would hatch. Without that warm environment, the little chicks would never break out of their eggs and live freely.

I think the church is a type of “spiritual incubator.” It’s a place where anyone can come who is engulfed with things that inhibit them from living freely in Christ. Provided with an environment consistently warm with the love of God enables us to break free from our inhibitors so we can freely become everything God has designed us to be.

That’s how it should be, yet too many churches are more like inhibitors rather than incubators. Too often, Christians attempt to hold others back by placing their own demands on the lives of others in an attempt to constrain them. Kind of like moving a baby chick from one egg to another.

This has been a problem since the church began. In Acts 15:1-35, we see the story of how Gentiles were being converted to the Christian faith, yet some believers (who were still part of the sect of the Pharisees) insisted these Gentile converts be circumsized and follow the law of Moses. What they were really saying was, “Unless you become like us, you cannot become a part of us!”

When Paul and Barnabas heard about these demands, they argued vehemently against them. So a contingent of men, including Paul and Barnabas, were sent to Jerusalem to discuss the matter with the apostles and elders. Upon hearing what was happening, the leadership agreed with Paul and Barnabas, and suggested some restraint regarding certain behaviors. They issued a letter which stated in part, “… For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell” (Acts 15:28-29).

The leaders encouraged avoidance of certain behaviors, but removed the demands of conforming to the likeness of those who would put upon them burdens that Christ had died to free them of. This stand removed inhibitors to freedom in Christ and instead would provide an environment where faith and freedom in Christ would be warmly encouraged.

Today, we still try to inhibit others by placing upon them “greater burdens” than Christ requires. We want new converts to look, act, sound, behave, and think like us in order to be a part of “us.” But God wants us to be who He has created us to be, and to be transformed to be like Jesus, not like us.

When it comes to interacting with those who enter into your fellowship, are you an inhibitor of following after Christ, or an incubator of faith and freedom in Christ?

Scotty