The Party Spirit

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     I suspect most of us flatter ourselves that we walk by the Spirit, and this makes it possible for us to feel sorry deep down inside our beings, for the unfortunate masses who continue to slog along through the swampy desires of the flesh. It is a commentary upon our aptitude for filtering out what we do not want to see, that we can read through the list of the works of the flesh, which Paul says are plain, and settle on those which do not particularly disturb us, while coldly ignoring those which we practice with such a degree of fidelity one would think they are commands of the Lord.

     We sail through "immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry and sorcery" and skirt around past "drunkenness and carousing," and congratulate ourselves that we belong to Christ Jesus and "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." But we touch lightly on jealousy, anger and selfishness. Most of us wonder about the inclusion of such items, which all of us have to fight off like mosquitoes, along with things like idolatry and sorcery. It is aggravating to those of us who have never been dead drunk and have avoided becoming bar-flies or bottle-jockeys to realize that we may end up with a bunch of such characters in Gehenna because we "fly off the handle" when we become irritated, or are consumed by jealousy until we make life miserable for ourselves and even more so for those around us. All of us can see the divine wisdom in condemning "big sins" of which we are never guilty, but we cannot understand why the Spirit slipped in a bunch of things which most of us can only disavow by lying about them.

     Take for instance, the work of the flesh which appears right after the one called dissension, and which is dubbed "party spirit." Almost everyone who has this affliction denies it and tries to dress it up in a disguise so it will not be recognized. It is this carnal characteristic which has been responsible for ripping the cloak of Christian union to shreds, and making the plea for oneness of the believers a distorted caricature, a disreputable scarecrow in the neglected garden of faith.

     We are not divided over the things which have been credited with disrupting us. These create problems, multiply areas of disagreement, and make tensions in the fold of the followers. We are divided because the party spirit has run rampant over the Holy Spirit. If we had not divided over the things which we blamed we would have divided over other things. We are divided because we thought division, practiced division and now defend it. We were divided because we had the will to divide. The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the party spirit is a work of the flesh. Where the Holy Spirit reigns men can labor together in spite of grave differences. When the party spirit governs lives men will fragment over trivialities and will fight one another after the division much harder than they fought the devil before.

     While it is tragic to see the devastation wrought in the body of believers by the party spirit, the saddest influence is that wielded over the individual heart in which this malignancy fastens itself. The party spirit breeds hostility which destroys the most intimate relationships of life. Parents are turned against their children and the children against their parents. Brethren who have labored together for years become inveterate enemies when they are infected by this virus. There is nothing they will not say or do to defame character or destroy influence. They treat one another more callously than the heathen world treats its foes. They bite and devour one another and are consumed one of another. The party spirit makes spiritual cannibals of men.

     That spirit is the exact opposite of the spirit of love. Love is patient and kind, the party spirit is impatient, restless and impolite. Love is not jealous or boastful, the party spirit is insanely jealous and bombastic. It minimizes the significant attainment of its rivals while vaunting every trivial gain of its own as an accomplishment of the ages. Love is not

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arrogant or rude, the party spirit is dictatorial, imperious and insolent. No one else is ever as brash and domineering as one who is a party champion.

     Love does not insist on its own way, the party spirit is convinced it is the only way. Everyone outside the party is either ignorant or dishonest. No one else can be accorded recognition or credited with ability to reason sincerely. Only those who pledge allegiance to the party flag can be trusted. They may be uncouth, illiterate and boorish in manner and behavior but they are the faithful remnant for whom Jesus gave His life. Love is not irritable or resentful, the party spirit is acrimonious and churlish. It cannot stand for others to advance or grow and always assigns the worst motives to those who do.

     It is noticeable that a dyed-in-the-wool partisan always assigns the very worst designs to anyone who bursts the bonds of the sect, and outgrows the circumscribed limitations and inhibitions created by the traditions hallowed by debate. No one makes a change on the basis of his deeper investigation of the truth. When a young man casts off the partisan garb he is accused of falling for the scheme of a plotting heretic, or is selling out for popularity, or is revealing a tendency to wishy-washiness which he managed to conceal up to that time. He simply cannot have learned a greater or deeper truth, for the party has the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is the guardian of the truth, the defender of the truth, the preceptor of the truth. To leave the party is to forsake the truth. The most dangerous thing a partisan can do is to really start thinking for himself.

     Love does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. The party spirit rejoices in the wrong. If a calamity overtakes the opposing party it is a cause for glee. It served them right. They had it coming to them. The only right in which a sectarian can rejoice is his own righteousness. He does not rejoice when members of the Catholic Church work in a frightful leper colony, or when Presbyterians establish a rescue clinic for drug addicts. It is right for a Methodist chaplain to counsel and help men behind prison bars but I know people who do not rejoice in it, because one must be right to do right, and no one can be right on anything who does not see everything as they do. To be right means to be in the right party. To a partisan it is better to be wrong in the right place than to be right in the wrong place.

     I am convinced that the party spirit, which is the spirit of exclusion, ostracism and proscription, will shrivel the soul and sear the emotions. It is the spirit of arm's length rather than of the encircling arms. It shakes fists rather than hands. It carries a chip on the shoulder rather than a concern in the soul. It the Father treated His children as we treat our brethren love would disappear from the universe to be supplanted by hostility and despair. And do not forget that the Father's children are my brothers and sisters. I do not manifest my love for the Father by hating His children!

     Perhaps one of the great evils perpetrated by the party spirit is the confusion of values and the overthrow of priorities. It is an indication of immaturity and childishness when one trades something for a mere bauble or trifle. One does not swap an expensive automobile for a pair of roller skates. To burn down a mansion to get rid of mice in the basement is hardly the action of a sane mind. But the ardent factionalist will destroy fellowship and sacrifice the things for which Jesus died in order to defend some insignificant thing which has assumed immense proportions in his feverish imagination. To dissolve the harmonious functioning of the body of our Lord over some of the silly things about which our fathers squabbled borders upon the ridiculous. How the angels must weep when they behold the children of God forming rival clans and tomahawking one another.

     I rather think that the first step in triumphing over the work of the flesh under consideration is to realize the magnitude of the divine provision for our salvation and spiritual development. The more one meditates upon the glory and

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majesty of God's revelation of the deliverance from the dominion of darkness and the transfer into the kingdom of his beloved Son, the less he is inclined to estrangement and hostility of mind. Jesus declared that if he was lifted up from the earth he would draw all men unto him. The cross, like the ark of the covenant in the wilderness, is the center around which we are all to pitch our tents, and the more precious the cross becomes the less significant will all else be.

     We can conquer the party spirit just as we can overcome any other work of the flesh. In spite of its insidious nature we are no more doomed to continue in it than we would be to continue to drink to excess. It is as important that we divest ourselves of it as that we free ourselves from impurity, idolatry or sorcery. In order to do so we must want to be free from it. We must recognize it for what it is, a sin against God and a scandal against the bride of his Son. So long as we cloak this sin with the garment of respectability we will not escape from it.

     We must apply ourselves to overcoming the baneful effects of the sectarian attitude by starting in to undo our errors. This means we must begin to associate with those from whom we were separated and commend our love unto them. This requires no change of position on the troublesome issues. It only requires a recognition of our mutual brotherhood in Christ. Any repair of breaches in human relationships must begin with renewal of associations. There is no other way to effect the healing of a rupture between persons.

     Peacemakers do not wait for others to come to them. Since peace does not just happen, but is made, the peacemaker moves into the situation actively. He begins to apply the healing balm of love and concern directly to the gaping wound. He is not troubled by false accusations made by those who would prefer that the laceration remain. Jesus came to the world to preach peace, but his own received him not. A world at war does not always want its walls torn down. But God wants barriers between brethren removed and this requires action as well as talk. It is time to practice unity as well as talk about it!