Life and Other Mysteries

  This idea has been nagging at me. How do we love a person who is so different from ourselves? It’s the mere realization that they act and behave differently which somehow goes against our very fiber. It causes us to be uneasy, restless, and even extremely judgmental. How has the church really handled this? In my opinion not very well – they have pushed judgment in the name of trying to take a stand. I can see very clearly the problem on both sides. On one hand we are called to love and serve those who are different from us even if it isn’t our own preference to do so. However, there is a point where we need to take a stand for what is right. We have become a society which is way too accepting of everything – where should lines be drawn? When have we as a nation gone too far? These questions have been plaguing me lately. 

I recently had an opportunity to be with a group of people of whom normally the church would be calling them to repentance and tell them right where they are going because of the lifestyle they are living. I am reminded that sin is sin no matter how you slice it or dice it. Jesus clearly stated those who have no sin cast the first stone. What did he do for the price of ALL sin – it didn’t matter what type it was – He died on a cross for you and I. Whereby, paying the price for our sin. It’s through Jesus’ sacrifice and our acceptance of Him into our heart that we are no longer damned. How is it that we have come up with our own hierarchy of sins? Where in the bible does it say that one sin is worse than the other? Even some circles of the church are divided on what they think is acceptable and isn’t. What does God say on the issue? What does the bible say on the issue? It really shouldn’t just be what the church says! In addition, to the division, we also have the outsider’s perception. What are they seeing in us – the Christians? I think in many instances they are seeing hate and judgment. I am very burdened about this issue – on the other hand we are called to live righteously and holy.  How can we be so accepting?

I think the answer I have found is that it’s not our place to be determining what is acceptable. In our own eyes, as humans, we are imperfect and therefore we don’t have a proper measuring stick for what’s acceptable. It is by the bible that we measure what’s good, acceptable, and pleasing to God. The bible should be how we determine what is right and wrong. We are called to live by Christ’s example – showing love to the unlovable – genuinely caring and taking an invested interest in them. Jesus showed the unloveable love time and time again and even when they didn’t deserve it. What do you think we should be doing?

As I showed love, I was amazed at the response I got. It was almost with accusatory looks as if waiting for me to pounce and start judging or condemning them. I did not do any of these things. I don’t feel that this is the right way to handle the situation – I believe that it was uneasy at times, not so much for me but them. Jesus ran with a pretty rough crowd himself. If anyone reads the bible, they will find that Jesus hung out with the outcasts, tax collectors, prostitutes and those who no one wanted anything to do with. How are we as Christians really measuring up to this standard? 

I think too often we like to hang out with only those who are like ourselves because it is comfortable. It should be said: we need to have accountability with those who are of like mind as ourselves to challenge and grow in faith together. However, there should be a point where we transcend merely just filling ourselves up spiritually; there should be a point where we become so saturated with the word that we bubble over into the world around us. This is where we can live out what we are being taught. I like the quote – “practice what you preach or better yet just practice”. We don’t need to be up on a high hill looking down at those who aren’t like us but rather we need to be in the world showing others love and genuine care. (To be in the world and not of the world – there is a significant difference) How else is the world going understand God and who God REALLY is? Jesus even condemned the religious leaders in his day for being pious and self-righteous. He overthrew the money changers table in the temple – why? Because they were taking advantage of the people and misrepresenting God. 

An example some years ago: there was a church in Gainesville, FL who decided they were going to burn the Quran on September 11^th. They hooted and hollered and created quite the commotion! They had news crews covering the story and people all around the world were looking at this little church in Gainesville. To be honest, it was an embarrassment for the Christian community! How can rising up in hate against another belief system bring about change? Or turn people to Jesus? Not to mention the troops overseas who are fighting for freedom and safety who would take the full brunt of this hateful act by losing their lives. This type of demonstration only makes the rest of the world look on in disbelief. We can’t proclaim to love God and then turn around and deny Him by our actions! It’s called hypocrisy and that is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable!

The same is true for religious leaders today; people are portraying the wrong image / message of who and what God truly is and what He longs to do in our lives. According to the bible, He doesn’t want to bring harm upon us but rather free us. Unfortunately, this pious image is the one that seems to stick in people’s mind when the word “Christian” comes up. For those of us who are serious about our faith, we need to be burdened and challenged to change this perception. We shouldn’t be full of ourselves but be striving to be more like Jesus. We need to show who the REAL Jesus is to the world by the way we live our lives.

I will leave this post with this exert from the Bible:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬-‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬