Why are Christians so given to tribalism?

There is no need to give a defense of the conviction that Christians are given to tribalism. Thankfully, there is no “there is no tribalism” tribe in the church. One wag once said something to the effect that the sinfulness of man is that Christian doctrine for which there is the greatest empirical evidence. Everyone can see it. Our tribalism is simply another manifestation of our sin.

We are not the first believers to be guilty of it. The church at Corinth was infested with the problem, but they didn’t start the fire. The disciples were guilty of it. The children of Israel were guilty of it. The root is sin. The trunk is pride. Tribalism is the branches.

First, tribalism feeds off our need to think our distinctions are what earn God’s favor. Thinking that because I believe in the doctrines of grace, or because I’m missional, or because I’m open to the Spirit at work, or because I have maintained a place at someone else’s table, all of them are nothing more than hooks to hang our self-justification hats on. It is the ground of our higher life, second blessing that sets us higher than the poor benighted fools that will only make it into heaven by the skin of their teeth.

Second, tribalism feeds our need to be in the inner circle, also a function of pride. We create our He-man Egalitarian Hater’s Club or our Knox-ious Arminian Bible Thumping Club or our More Winsome Than Thou Chamberlain Club we not only get to look down our individual noses at other believers but also get to learn the secret handshake, the quote the acceptable sages to one another. We get to belong. That hunger to be in the inner circle is not silly little temptation. It did great damage to the body in birthing Gnosticism and does so today in sustaining Gnosticism.

Third, tribalism gives us a battlefield where we can win glory. When we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness we will acquire no medals for extraordinary courage. Our exploits will not be recounted around the campfires of the future. We will die gloriously forgotten. When, however, we enter the twitter-fray armed with 280 smooth characters by which we slay the Philistines in the other camp, we get likes and retweets and followers. We become the champion of our cause, fighting against the cause of our Champion.

Which brings us to the solution. We need to repent and believe the gospel. Not create the Repent and Believe the Gospel tribe, but to actually repent and believe the gospel. We are together, every believer out there, the compromised and the worldly, the pure and the disdainful, the sound and the wacky, full enough of blindness, sin, pride, folly, that not one of us has any business looking down our noses at others. We are together bought with a price, precious in the sight of our Lord. Oh the shame that I snicker against those for whom He went through His passion.

Can we disagree? Of course. Do secondary matters matter? Secondarily, most certainly. Secondary errors carry with them dangerous trajectories. So too, however, does turning secondary matters into primary matters. The former may lead in the end to a denial of the gospel. The latter has already done so. Oh Lord, give us unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and in all things, charity.