Jesus.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about that guy. Man, oh man, is HE a legit dude. Seriously. I want to start striving to be more like Him. I was thinking about this today at work actually... about how big of a sinner I am, about how much He loves me, about how unworthy I am of His grace and love. It's astonishing. I mean HE died so the world could be forgiven.. not just Jewish people, or Gentiles, or me or you... but the WHOLE WORLD! It made me think about that feeling we get when we do something for other people, like we let them go ahead of us at the grocery store, or get over in traffic... and how it feels when someone thanks us or waves for doing those things... or even how angry I get when someone doesn't wave at me when I let them over in front of me-- and yes, that is something I struggle with greatly. Why does it matter, why am I in such a hurry that one car length is going to ruin my drive. If Jesus could say to the WORLD, go ahead of me, let me die in your place... let me take the fall for YOUR sins, why can't I be more understanding when someone needs, yet doesn't necessarily ask, to go ahead of me? The last few weeks I've tried to start being really intentional about being relational. Relationship is everything. Now, when I say intentional about being relational I mean that in a variety of ways-- intentional in my relationship with the Christ, with my family, my friends, my coworkers, even people that really annoy me. Look at the people that Jesus spent His time with... most of His time was spent with sinners. People that were considered the "scum" of the Earth. People that are just like me.
Too often I get caught up in sin, but not in the way I should.. not in my own sin but the sin of others... as if I'm some how better than other people. That is the biggest load of CRAP anyone could ever carry with them. Jesus never inherently said "We can't talk, you're a sinner" or "Hey man, I like you and all, but you are a SINNER.. I'm not". No he welcomed and accepted everyone. Because all sins are equal. I don't want to get into a political debate, and I'm not taking a side either way... but really what's the deal with all this Chic-fil-A drama? Remember that craze from the 90's, the one that involved little bracelets, keychains, even t-shirts that said W.W.J.D.? I wear one to this day, I've been wearing it everyday since I returned from a men's retreat, because it's a reminder I need and the funny thing is, I know the answer to that question... What would Jesus do? LOVE. Love people, Love God, Love community. Does that mean we can't disagree? Absolutely not. It does mean that we need to focus on the matters at hand. What I find inherently sad about the whole Chicken fiasco is that people are supporting/boycotting an organization based on the media's interpretation of a man's opinion. On the one hand, Chic-fil-A never said "We won't hire gays, serve gays, or give them coupons" so why are gay rights activists freaking out about this thing? He stated an opinion, really answered a direct question asking for an opinion, about family. I don't see anything wrong with that... but sadly there are a lot of people boycotting Chic-fil-A because the media made it out to be an anti-gay, Christian establishment. On the other hand... there are also people eating there, and supporting them because of that media portrayal. Christians, what are we doing? Aren't we called to LOVE all people? The way Jesus did. Jesus didn't ostracize people because of their sexual orientation, their financial status, or the way they looked. He loved them. My big issue with SOME of the Christian stances on this matter is that we are forgetting something. All SINS are equal. There's nothing different about the sin of a man loving a man from a man lusting after a woman. A sin, is a sin, is a sin. Matthew 7:3-5 "And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you thinkg of saying to your friend 'Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye." Maybe if we focuses on our own sins, instead of the sins of others, we'd find some conviction. I'm not going to discuss my opinion on homosexuality. But I do want to discuss something about Christianity.
In Ephesians 5:1 we are called to "Be imitators of Christ", so as CHRISTians shouldn't we be completely focused on loving other people the way Christ does. I personally can't think of anything better to strive for. If we would just love each other this world would be a completely different place. I truly believe that. Now, there is also something to be said for some scriptural integrity here. Granted "love the sinner, hate the sin" is not a bible verse that can be found all in one place, but it is an IDEA that can be found in the bible. The first part "love the sinner" could be supported with Matthew 22:39 "Love your neighbor as yourself", which calls us to love others the way we love ourselves, if we can love ourselves despite the fact that we are sinners... we should love other sinners too. Romans 5:8 says "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" take that verse from Romans, add to it Ephesians 5:1 (referenced above) and we are called to love like Christ did. As for the "hate the sin" portion of that phrase look at Romans 12:9 "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good" SIN is EVIL, so yes we should hate sin but at the same time we have no right to pass judgement. Roman 2:1-4 says "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?". We have no right to pass judgment, that's something God tells us verbatim.
I didn't want to get involved in this rant, and there are going to be people, even Christians that disagree with my stance on this I'm sure. But I'm backing up my opinion with scripture. Both sides have misguided intentions. That's what happens when we allow the media to guide us instead of the Holy Spirit. Instead of worrying about chicken, let's worry about love...
W.W.J.D.
Grace and Peace
Brad, I absolutely love the message you are talking about. For way too many years I attended church thinking that my ticket to heaven was dependent on two things: 1.) following the "rules" of the church (no cursing, no drinking, no smoking, no dancing) and 2.) saving others to get "jewels" in your crown. It was all about doing or the restraint from doing certain things. It wasnt far into adulthood, when I broke away from my extremely sheltered life that I realized I could never live up to these standards. That's when I started resenting the church and hiding who I really was on Sunday morning and wednesday night. It was exhausting and infuriating because even though through all my sin I never intentionally did anything to hurt anyone else ( my heart was always loving to just about everyone but myself), I could feel the sates to the back of my hraf, the judgement that aid " I know what you did last summer".... (Maybe that reference was lost on you because of your young age ;) ) These people of the church who judged me on the wrong things pushed me away from church and away from God for over 16 years! Let my experience be a testimony to the truth of what you are saying. Isn't it ironic that in all the years spent in the church I found the true demonstation of W.W.J. D. From two incredible guys found in none other than corporate America. It was those two guys that shared their true selves with me, that I knew to be loving of heart and followers of Jesus and who also openly admitted their shortcomings to me and anyone else who would listen...those are the ones! Those are the guys who showed me what it meant to be a true Christian and to demonstrate Christ like qualities. I still don't have all the answers but thanks to those two guys, for the first time in YEARS I am curious. I want to learnore about the Bible and the true meaning of the Word. And it's all because I was reintroduced to it with the true intended message...the same message you are talking about of love. It's axing how many people overlook this and condemn all "the sinners" of the world, all those with shortcomings. I am still in contact with some of my childhood friends of the church who openly amid very publicly JUDGE ! As you said all sins ate equal. Now that I understand that I can only feel sympathy for them and pray that they find truth, for how awful must life be that we feel the need to search for fault in others. Thank you for sharing this and I so appreciate your putting yourself out there to share this message! ~Brooke
ReplyDeletePs sorry for all the typos....can't figure out how to go back on this iPhone...another lesson for another day I guess. Goodnight!