The Idol of Tribe

  • The Idol of Tribe
  • Introduction:
  • Tribe as Gift
  • Tribe as Identity
  • Tribe as Righteousness
  • Tribe as Weapon
  • Christ and the New Humanity
  • One New Humanity
  • Paul's Personal Testimony
  • The Shape of the New Community
  • The Final Vision: Tribes Present, None Enthroned
  • Living the New Humanity
  • In Politics
  • In the Workplace
  • In the Church
  • Final Reflections: A Better Belonging

The Idol of Tribe

Introduction:

Triibe is a good gift, a dangerous identity, and a terrible savior. We will follow the story Scripture itself tells as it traces humanity from creation, through fall, into redemption. Tribe is given by God as context and location. It is taken up by fallen humanity as identity and refuge. And it is repeatedly trusted as a savior, with devastating consequences. Only in Christ is tribe restored to its proper place—under grace, not over others.

After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. Rev 7: 9

Tribe as Gift

God creates one humanity, expressed through many peoples — without hierarchy of worth. Tribe tells people where they are in the world, not who they are before God.

Too long, please open your Bible Genesis 1:26–28

Diversity emerges as humanity fills the earth

Too long, please open your Bible Genesis 10

Nations exist under God’s providence, not human merit.

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of mankind, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the sons of Israel. Deut 32:8

Tribe shapes names, accents, food, marriage, politics, identity and in more recent times, the traditional meaning has expanded to include university networks, social class, professional circles, work place cliques and church inner circles. These all meet real needs for connection and belonging, so, the difference is not defect, neither is man’s multiplicity or need of belonging an evil thing. Using it as a hierarchy of worth is.

Tribe as Identity

When tribe becomes refuge, it also becomes fragile and could quickly become the source of security, significance and salvation.

Cain’s violence flows from threatened identity.

Too long, please open your Bible Genesis 4

Babel represents collective self-salvation

Too long, please open your Bible Genesis 11

Tribe begins answering questions like “Who am I?”, “Am I safe?”, “Am I justified?”. Questions that only God should be able to answer and what begins as belonging quietly becomes control.

Diagnostic Questions:

  • When we hear criticism of our group, do we feel personally attacked?
  • When our people lose influence, do we feel fundamentally unsafe?
  • When outsiders succeed, do we feel it's at our expense?

If yes: Tribe has moved from context to control, from gift to identity

Tribe as Righteousness

When tribe moves from identity to righteousness, superiority is inevitable.

Israel’s election was vocational, not validating. It’s an Election grounded in grace, not merit, and it was for a purpose.

And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Genesis 12:3b (NIV)
Too long, please open your Bible Deuteronomy 7: 7-8

This Heritage eventually becomes false security

Too long, please open your Bible Jeremiah 7

Israel’s descent without obedience is exposed.

Too long, please open your Bible John 8: 31 - 48
Too long, please open your Bible Romans 9

Tribe that is used as moral head start is clearly rejected by the scriptures as seen in israel’s example above. The belief that our own story, our tribe's suffering, achievements, or experience gives us moral authority and epistemic privilege over others is boasting in the flesh, and tribe has become righteousness.

Tribe as Weapon

When tribe is enthroned, dehumanization and violence follow. Moral outrage escalates into near-genocide

Too long, please open your Bible Judges 12: 1 - 6, 19 - 21

The Prophet Obadiah spoke alot about Edom’s celebration of violence over israel. This is summarised in the psalm below:

Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!” Psalm 137: 7

We repeateadly see the biblical patterns where Tribe is made supreme and used to invoke some sense of Righteousness, which in turn leads to a devaluation of human life.

Scripture consistently warns that when tribe becomes god, blood follows. Always.

Christ and the New Humanity

Jesus does not erase tribe. He dethrones it and creates one new humanity.

The scripture is replete with instances where Jesus addresses tribal boundaries.

Too long, please open your Bible Luke 10:25-37
Too long, please open your Bible John 4

One New Humanity

Too long, please open your Bible Ephesians 2:11-22

Christ is our peace in whom and by whose blood we were recreated and made one body through his death and resurrection and are fellow citizens, members of God’s household.

The new humanity is not a diversity training, neither is it tolerance, it is re-creation.

Paul's Personal Testimony

Too long, please open your Bible Philippians 3:4-11

Paul narrates his ancestry, pedigree, religious legitimacy. If narrative superiority were real, He embodied it, yet he calls it all the seemingly inherited righteousness loss when compared to received righteousness. He refuses to stand on his story but will rather be found in Christ's story.

Renouncing narrative superiority is refusing to let background become ground of righteousness

The Shape of the New Community

Too long, please open your Bible Galatians 3:26-29
Too long, please open your Bible Colossians 3:9-11

Any form of tribalism manifested within the church is not merely an act of unkindness; it is a profound denial of the inclusive gospel and the shared grace by which we are all saved. Such behavior reconstructs the barrier that Christ dismantled, suggesting the insufficiency of His sacrifice.

The Final Vision: Tribes Present, None Enthroned

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all the tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Revelation 7:9-10

Tribe is not erased, it remains, superiority does not. It is It is redeemed and reordered, as gift, not saviour—under grace, not over others. The church is not anti-tribal. It is trans-tribal.

Living the New Humanity

The new creation must be lived, not merely confessed.

Too long, please open your Bible Galatians 2:11-14
Too long, please open your Bible Colossians 3:9-10

In Politics

  • Refuse to baptize parties/leaders as saviors
  • Participate without uncritical allegiance
  • When our candidate wins: don't gloat
  • When our candidate loses: don't despair

In the Workplace

  • Hire the 95% qualified outsider over the 70% qualified insider from our network
  • Name injustice in meetings when proposals unfairly benefit our circle
  • Choose competence and character over credentials and connections

In the Church

  • Submit to Scripture over comfort and familiarity
  • Receive correction from outside our social circle—test against Scripture, don't dismiss.
  • Let worship and fellowship cross lines naturally

Final Reflections: A Better Belonging

Scripture does not deny tribe. It denies tribe the throne because every time tribe becomes savior, blood follows.

In Christ, tribe is restored: a gift under grace, not a god over others.

We are not saved by our people. We are not righteous by proximity. We are not justified by belonging. We are in Christ.

When narrative superiority is renounced:

  • Freedom from constantly defending the group
  • Freedom from maintaining tribal reputation
  • Freedom to love people our tribe taught us to fear
  • Freedom to learn from people our tribe taught us to dismiss

This belonging is better. Deeper. More joyful. More real. It is grounded in Someone who cannot fail, who will not abandon us, who secured our worth by His blood and declared our identity by His resurrection.

The gospel calls us not to tribelessness, but to new humanity. To a tribe so vast, diverse, and glorious that every earthly tribe looks small. To a belonging so secure we can release every false source of identity and worth.

We are in Christ, and that changes everything.