God is a polyglot:

He speaks and relates to different people different ways.

If, however, we don’t respect how others hear and relate to God differently than us …

Then relational participatory church – with ministry by one another to mutually build up each other – will sputter and die.

For example:

Some primarily hear and relate to the Lord through their heart and feelings;

Some analytically through their mind and logic;

Some through the dynamics of action;

Some through the affection of relationships; and

Some through the passion of mercy or justice – among other ways.

In fact, we need each other and those differences if we want to stay in balance and grow up in our faith.

Problems often arise, however, when we think that our primary language for hearing and relating to God is His only language …

Or is superior to other languages He uses with others.

If left unchecked, this causes us to be dismissive of others …

And of what God wants to do, and say, through them.

I see it all too often these days:

Those who hear God through their feelings think everyone should be about heart.

The same can happen with those who hear God analytically with their minds, or through action, or in relationships, or via passion for mercy or justice, or whatever.

When we wrongly conclude  – whether through ignorance or arrogance – that God’s way of speaking to us is the best way, or even the only legitimate way, we box Him in and limit His voice.

In so doing, we also put His people in a box and limit how God can minister to us – and balance our own limitations – through them.

If we are not careful, our box then becomes legalism – as we insist (or more subtly presume) that everyone must comply with how God speaks and relates to us.

When this happens, the new legalism of making God and His church all about “compassion” and “love,” for example, becomes just as oppressive and dismissive …

As the old legalism of everything being about “doctrine” and “truth.”

In reality, God is about all those qualities …

As is the multi-part, multi-gifted, multi-functional Body of Christ.

Only as we learn to honor and respect the different ways God communicates and relates to others, can we then truly be the church …

One to another.