Suicide, Gossip, Division & The Mandate Of Unity In The Gospel...

Yesterday afternoon I learned of the passing of a member of the Christian Hip-hop community. Although I didn’t really know him well, he was acquainted with many people who I do know and consider friends, so by extension he was part of the same large circle. This is probably true for a LOT of you.

This isn’t the first loss this community has endured this year. However, what strikes me the most about this situation is the elephant in the room… The grief people are feeling right now is being AMPLIFIED by the echoes of division among us.

I'm not here to throw shade at anyone or attempt to be the arbiter of justice, determining who is right or wrong in any situation. I personally have no malice or animosity toward ANY of you. In fact, I love you all, which is why I'm writing this article. This message also isn't specifically aimed at at any one person, group, or situation within our community, but it might be applicable to many. I suspect by now, most of us are observing conversations, references, or exchanges here and there that relate to the overall topics I want to address here.

I want to start by saying suicide is an awful thing that absolutely leaves a wake of chaos and destruction in the lives of those left behind. There is NO redemptive value in taking your own life, beyond what God can supernaturally do to use it for His own glory, despite the inherent ugliness of that act.

Whenever someone takes their own life, the debates inevitably start within the church community about whether their salvation is intact. This is a complicated issue but the simple fact is it's not for us to determine what happens next for a person who is already gone from this life. There are usually well intentioned people on both sides of the argument who attempt to rightly divide the truth in order to proclaim a person saved or condemned...

They may or may not take into account multiple factors and considerations. Not all suicides are necessarily created equally. Some may have been very intentional, others a cry for help gone wrong, and still others just an unassuming accident that became suicide. We often don't know all the details of a situation involving suicide and we surely don't know with absolutely certainty if EVERY person who dies by suicide is absolutely condemned to hell, any more than we know if the nice old guy from the grocery story who died in his sleep or the lady on the worship team who was killed in a car accident are for sure saved or condemned.

On the other hand, there is NO doubt from the full counsel of scripture that suicide IS A SIN. Scripture warns us in multiple places not to tempt OR test God. The thought of ending your own life and subsequently facing God should make you nervous, just like dying in the act of any sin should, quite frankly. As believers we should not rest on the laurels of uncertainty or become comfortable with the idea of taking our own lives. We also shouldn't tickle people's ears about suicide simply to spare their feelings. Truth matters. To declare universally that people who profess faith in God and then commit suicide are absolutely saved is reckless and could put the eternal destination of others in peril, which would put that blood on our hands as well.

In these situations, what often gets lost is care and compassion for those left behind who are confused and suffering because of the choice of their loved one AND care and compassion for those who may secretly be struggling with depression and despair right here in our midst. It is to them we should turn our attention in order to encourage them to lean into God and seek the peace and contentment only He can provide us with. Additionally, words and acts of kindness in their time of grief can be highly impactful.

Lately, I've also noticed a lot of division in this little independent CHH community. I've been part of some conversations and attempted as best as I can to encourage people to reconcile. What has become evident in the last 24 hours is some of that animosity and division runs deeper and involves more of us than any of us probably want to admit.

We've all been guilty of gossip and backbiting at one point in our lives. We've all done wrong by people, maybe intentionally or unknowingly. We've all probably ended relationships prematurely or even being fully justified, harbored unhealthy resentment while upholding the masquerade of just letting go of something unproductive or toxic. Many of us have also experienced betrayal, lies, abandonment, and rejection resulting in having been ostracized, perhaps without justification... and we may have lashed out because we felt people were attempting to silence us about it.

Jesus said a house divided amongst itself will fall and a Kingdom divided against itself will be brought to DESOLATION. That means THERE IS NO DIVISION WITHIN THE TRUE KINGDOM OF GOD! If we find ourselves divided and unwilling to reconcile, we must ask if it is truly us or the other party who is choosing to stand outside the Kingdom. IF your immediate answer is automatically that it's the other party involved, I want to caution you to take care that you truly examine your heart and motives carefully to make sure you're not in error.

Christ warned us to remove the plank from our own eye before we pluck the speck from our brother's eye. So what am I getting at with all of this?

Today I want to encourage you that there is room for disagreement within the Body of Christ that doesn't necessitate DIVISION. I want to exhort you to think carefully about how you handle disagreements. There are very few things that should probably result in totally cutting another professing believer out of our lives. Those things are almost exclusively either extremely egregious, severely habitual, or followed by blatant refusal of acknowledgement and remorse.

Even when we part ways in ministry or other ventures, we can almost always choose to do it amicably. If you disagree, consider reading about Paul and Barnabas. They determined to part ways, not being able to agree on a mutual ministry partner, but they did so peacefully... Not attacking one another, not declaring each other heretical, or refusing to have any association whatsoever with one another.

In an age of social media, Christians are just as called to rise above petty disagreements and demonstrate attributes deemed peculiar by the world. It grieves me to see brothers and sisters all around us blocking each-other, bashing one another, or airing their disagreements publicly instead of seeking a mediator and attempting reconciliation if they can't resolve things on their own. I suspect it grieves the Holy Spirit also...

When we do these things, the rest of the world takes notice. The people we're supposed to be reaching with the Gospel see us infighting and probably laugh at us... or worse at God. As a result, we risk making a mockery of God and permanently damaging the testimony He has given to each of us. This is tragic my friends, and it needs to stop NOW. As my brother Freddrick HalleluYAH has recently said, we need to stop crashing out on social media!!!

Let us do as Christ commands and pray for our enemies. Let us always seek reconciliation whenever possible. When it doesn't come easily, let us seek prayer, wise counsel, and fellow believers to attempt to moderate our disagreements. Let us demonstrate unity in our shared belief in the one true God here and now... before some of us are gone and with it any opportunity to rectify things.

I love you CHH family. Please love each other!

In Christ,

-eCsiLe (Editor-In-Service)