It takes courage to refuse to take a side, but rather to expose the flawed beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of both conservatism and progressivism. No human ideology is perfect and even if there was a perfect ideology, we humans would ruin its perfection by our flawed implementation of it. Jesus builds His ekklesia (the Greek word that was the name of the interactive city council in Greek city-states that is translated as church in most English Bibles) on the rock of supernatural revelation from God, independent of human governments and ideologies.

If the kingdom of God (body of Christ–ekklesia) has an ideology, it would be revelationism–individuals being continually led by and obeying the Holy Spirit–not by the flesh (human desires, feelings, and ideologies). That’s the difference between the kingdom of God and the world. People either follow and obey the voice of the living God or we follow and obey our desires, feelings, and ideologies. We can’t consistently do both at the same time.

When the Holy Spirit is allowed to freely lead, carnality recedes. When our carnality begins to recede, it causes both carnal conservatives and carnal progressives to be uncomfortable enough to confront and persecute us. We get it from both sides. But then, Jesus calls that a blessing. Don’t forget to count your uncomfortable blessings today!