What Flavor Is God's Church?

My wife, Melanie, often buys a brand of tea called “Celestial Seasonings”. (It sort of sounds spiritual, doesn’t it?) The package contains tea bags of different flavors. She likes the Country Apple flavor. I don’t care for it, but I do enjoy a flavor called Red Zinger. The apple flavor is boring to me, but the Red Zinger — it’s a real eye opener. When a person is thirsty for some good tea, Red Zinger hits the spot. Melanie disagrees. She thinks the Country Apple is better. However, it isn’t the actual flavor of either tea that quenches thirst. As much as we each enjoy our favorite flavor, we have never taken the tea bags out of the box and put them into our mouth to suck the flavor out of the bags. We always add water. The flavor causes the tea to appeal to us, but the water is what really satisfies.

Jesus once said, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). Only Jesus can quench the inner thirst for life experienced by every human being. Jesus offers Himself as the only real thirst quencher in this barren world. The way in which He offers His life to the world is ingenious. His life is expressed through many different flavors.

Just as there are many flavors of tea, there is amazing diversity within the body of Christ. There are distinct differences which are obvious. I’ve met some Country Apples in the body of Christ more than once. I have often seen the distinguished Earl Grey crowd. I have even met a few Red Zingers along the way. Come to think of it, I’ve encountered just about every flavor you can imagine. I’ve been in churches where the people shouted praise and in others where they whispered prayers. Some kneel at their pews, others stand with their hands lifted, while another group simply bow their heads. Some sing choruses and others prefer the old hymns. There really are a lot of flavors out there.

Which flavor is the best? It depends on who you ask. The Red Zingers think the Earl Grey crowd is too stuffy while the Earl Grey crowd believe they are too wild. They both think the Country Apples aren’t educated enough while they are convinced that the other groups put far too much confidence in the wisdom of man. This is sort of silly, isn’t it? Yet that is the exact attitude often present in the body of Christ.

God’s family is a diverse family. There is a world full of people around us who need the life of Jesus. Like you and me, each of them find certain flavors distasteful and others to be more palatable. The flavor represents the personality of different groups. Contrary to the opinion of many Christians, there is no best flavor. The flavor is not the important element. The thing that really matters is the water. If the pitcher (Christian) is filled with water (Jesus), the flavor (personality) of the tea doesn’t really matter. Some people will be drawn to Christ because of the appeal of one flavor, while other unsaved people will be more receptive to another. As long as they receive the Water of Life, what difference does the flavor make? The Holy Spirit uses the distinctive flavors found in the body of Christ to reach the world. Regardless of our own particular flavor, every Christian can cry out to the world, “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8).

(This article is an excerpt from my book, Grace Rules. For more information on the book, click here: http://gracewalkresources.com/item.asp?cID=0&PID=34