There’s been much flap, recently, about
many social issues that cause Christians a great deal of concern and have
resulted in grand declarations about the long term and even eternal consequences
that will be incurred, should these things be allowed to continue.
For centuries, Christians have deemed
themselves the world’s moral police, believing they are protecting and serving
the world by building better fences to keep people from sin and the total moral
collapse of society. Clearly, this has never worked. If it had, we would already
be the shining city on a hill that we all long for. I know this is no news to
all of you, but it is not, nor has it ever been the job of Christians to
protect and serve by being the judge and jury of mankind. Sadly, society truly
has bore consequences, not of “their sin,” per se, but of over-zealous
Christians who take their self imposed mission far too far. This
over-zealousness is in stark contrast to the life Christ calls us to. Yes, we
should be zealous about the One whose zealous love for us rescued us from our
own sin. However, this rescue came, not through the successful following of a
moral code, but through self sacrificial love, freely given, without reserve,
regardless of our moral uprightness.
For generations, mankind lived under a
“moral code,” which, by all appearances, failed miserably. However, the great
experiment was actually the catalyst to God’s (and our) ultimate victory over
sin and death, setting us free from its power and releasing us from that
oppressive moral code. Jesus, before He ascended to heaven, left us with a new
command, one the replaces that failed moral code and yet, ironically, perfectly
fulfills the requirements of that code; LOVE. He said, paraphrased…
Love others with the same love that I have
loved you with.
That’s it.
Unfortunately, the church believed this was
far too simple, so it blew the dust off that old, dead moral code and tried to
raise it back to life, as if Jesus, Himself, was not already resurrected. We
chose to ignore His new command (which is actually a blessing) and try to live
by the law, once again; the very law that is called “a minister of death” in
the Bible. At times we even perceive some apparent success when we, or others,
conform behavior to it’s requirements. But this success is deceptive. It isn’t
really success, at all, but a grand failure. It is a failure, because the
desire to conform to this old code automatically violates the new code, as attempting
to abide by the old code is not driven by love, but fear; fear for ourselves,
fear for others, fear of the future, fear (not reverence) of God, and as
Facebook friend of mine has said, “Perfect fear casts out love.” In deep
contrast, though, “perfect love casts out fear!”
It’s understandable that we would be
concerned for the harmful impact of people’s choices, and I will not deny that
this world is in tough shape, but tightening our grip on our rules, attempting
to control behavior and protect the world from it’s ultimate demise reveals
something about our faith that should cause us even greater concern than
people’s behavior. This obsession with moral conformity reveals a deep mistrust
of and ultimately a disbelief in God’s role as the creator, sustainer,
convictor, and reconciler of mankind. It is not our job to hold the world to
some moral code, not our job to convict others of sin, not our job to “save
them.” This is God’s job and God’s alone. We are only to love.
Tolerance does not mean a condoning of sin,
but a full acceptance of God’s love, grace and forgiveness for ourselves
Some say that tolerance is but a condoning,
or cover up of sin, but this is false, too. Tolerance, for a Christian, is
really our acknowledgement that we are no different than those we deem as falling
short. At one time, we were all dead in our trespasses and were raised up to
new life. This was not a result of conforming to a moral code, but the life
giving/restoring love of Jesus.
We all have our stuff and none of our stuff
is any better than “their” stuff. There is no “us and them;” there is only “we”
and what “we” need is what Jesus brought to all mankind and asked us to
distribute; His all transforming, all restoring LOVE.
Rules may conform, but only love transforms
- 2trakmind
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