Embracing Biblical Diversity

When we spend eternity together as children of God in the New Earth, what color will we all be? What language will we speak? How loud will the music be? Which genres of music will be heard? What will our dwellings look like?

If you're picturing a scene similar to the movie iRobot, where thousands of identical, white robots are lined up in a uniform and sterile environment, then I'm afraid your conception of heaven is far off. Consider a couple of observations about the New Earth from the book of Revelation:

And the city [the New Jerusalem] has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. (21:3-4)

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. (22:1-2)

Our eternal home will consist of varied nations, kings of those nations, and different kinds of food--including the tree of life that, on its own, produces twelve kinds of fruit. That's a lot of detail to start out with as we consider how much diversity there might be in the New Earth.

We of course know that right now, God is saving people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. The church is not red, yellow, black, or white; the church is red, yellow, black, and white. (Are we allowed to sing that song anymore?) These distinctions will continue on through eternity. People have different personalities, giftings, roles, tastes, and preferences. We have reason to believe that to a large degree, these types of distinctions will continue on forever.

So, if the New Earth will put diversity on full display, why should we wait to embrace it? We must celebrate the differences among us in the church because that is what makes the body function as a body. Under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and through the direction of His all-sufficient, authoritative word, we must heartily embrace our unity in the midst of our diversity without allowing one to swallow up the other. Unity is good; uniformity is a terror.