“Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.” - Rick WarrenI'm not sure who this post is for. Is it for Christians who are struggling to balance the competing interests of loving those around them while holding fast to their biblical convictions about sin? Or is it for the multitude of non-Christians who refuse to understand how a person could 'love' them and yet vehemently oppose their way of life. I guess, in short, I hope both sides might find a bit of encouragement here.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest of all the commandments were, his response was simple and poignant, "Love God with everything you are, and then love your neighbors as much as you love yourself." (paraphrased from Matthew 22:37-39). Of course, the One who gave that command was also the greatest example of living such love out. No one in history, and no fictional character ever dreamed up, could match the outpour and depth of Christ's love. Every word, every action, every thought and desire was focused on first loving and glorifying the Father, and then loving and redeeming us.
But love, Christ's love, was not merely a gesture of goodwill and support. It was just not endless compassion, sympathy, acceptance and mercy. Instead, Christ's love was something much more powerful: it was the desire to see a fallen world redeemed to the Father, a desire to see individuals transformed from corrupted beings of darkness into vessels of the Father's glory. You see, Christ loved us with a fervent and unending passion, but He didn't love our lifestyle. He didn't love our vanity, our pride, our immorality, our wickedness. He didn't love our sin. He didn't love the life choices that prevented us from full fellowship with the Father. And so, He came to love us, and in that love, He showed goodwill, support, compassion, sympathy, acceptance and mercy, but He also rebuked, criticised, admonished and exhorted us. He embraced the sinner with open arms but also condemned the life that sinner lived. And ultimately, He died, not to save the lives of those who followed Him, but to give us a new life, one separate from the corruption and sin that plague us.
The gospels are rife with demonstrations of this love. In John 8, he tells the adulteress woman, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more." Jesus loved her, He accepted her, He forgave her, but He also told her that her lifestyle was wrong and that it must change. He didn't condemn her, but He -did- condemn her lifestyle. He didn't tell her that it was her life to live how she wanted, or that she could choose whatever lifestyle best suited her. Instead, He loved her, and in showing that love, told her to change her ways.
So, then, when Christ says to love your neighbors as yourself, that doesn't mean we sit idly by and watch the world languish in lifestyles that celebrate the destructive power of sin. Instead, it means that we too should burn with the passion to see our neighbors embrace the grace and mercy of the Father and become those incorruptible, sinless vessels of His glory. Not because we've reached that stage (God knows Christians, including myself, have sins enough of their own) but because we know that we're called to something greater. So when Christians preach against all sorts of immorality, its not because we hate you, or fear you, or want to condemn you, or want to judge you and villainize you to make ourselves feel superior. Instead, we do it because we love you. We do it because our hearts are broken to see the corruption that runs rampant through ourselves and our neighbors. We do it because we want to see the mercy, power and glory of God realized in you, like it has been so wonderfully realized in us. So, non-Christians, realize that we don't hate you, but we also can't support a lifestyle that God has clearly condemned. He wants something greater for you, and so do we.
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6 comments:
Is it possible that Christians spend so much time either disagreeing with sin or embracing it that the rest of the world doesn't understand the love of Christ you're presenting here?
I should clarify. When I say "disagreeing," I mean calling people sinful. And when I say "embracing," I mean participating in sin and even encouraging it, whether by words or implicitly by our conduct (e.g. Ted Haggard).
It's 2012, it's time to move past superstition and accept scientific facts. Even if we follow the Bible, it says not a thing of pedophilia. Not one word against it. Yet it does take the time to discourage homosexuality. God takes the time to tell us not to commit thought-crime, which is Thou Shalt Not Covet. He lumps women in with property in this commandment. And why not? Women are nothing more than vaginas in the Bible. Men could hold concubines while married, men could marry multiple women, the lone surviving male could procreate with his DAUGHTERS....yet two women or two men entwined is somehow sick?
You may not hate homosexuality, but you follow a ridiculous achaic book full of hatred rather than insist on fact. Then the common excuse of Jesus loving, meek, and mild.... who told followers to abandon their own family to follow him. Traditional family values, baby!
Odd that the black community swallows this up as well, as their rights were trampled by the same book, not being able to marry into other races. Those outside of a Little Rock high school held signs with Bible verses telling them that they weren't even welcome to read in the same classroom.
Time to grow up and throw aside the fairy tales. You're an adult. You deserve the truth. There is no god and you're wasting your life and hurting others believing it. False hope is evil, faith is absolutely nullified in face of facts, and the rules of the Bible have been shown to be rampantly immoral regardless of the way 'society' was back then. Hate the sin, not the sinner is the new version of Hate the skin, but not the sinner.
Gays, we don't hate you. We love you.
All we're asking, and it's not a big thing to ask for, is for you to repress your sexual urges, not have the same rights as us with the correct sexuality, and understand that your love is sinful. You're not disgusting, just the person you are on the inside is. Because this book says so, and the book says it's true, so it must be. Circular logic is rationality!
And remember that Jesus died for you. Just like a multitude of other deities, but he was different.....because. JUST BECAUSE!
Jeremy and Regina,
It sounds like we are starting from very different worldviews here. But I'm sure we can find some common ground, and hopefully our future posts will be helpful in addressing the issues you've raised.
I think we spend so much time with right and wrong that we do not see God. Sin is what separates us from God. Sin can be pride, wrong behaviors, wrong thinking, idolatry and a million other things. What ever keeps you from having a relationship with God is sin. God sent Jesus to die so that sin, mine and yours can be forgiven. That bond to God and the freedom to be loved by him should be the focus, the goal. Let God forgive you, and enjoy the freedom from sin.
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