I've been suddenly yet slowly experiencing a new understanding. Sudden in the sense that it's been about a year. Slow in a sense when you compare that to my 25.
This understanding has led to my current feelings of being brainwashed and embarrassed.
You see, the more I've read the Bible and thought about true Christianity, and the more I've looked at and listened to current Christianity, the more these feelings grow.
I feel like my eyes have been slowly opening in agony at these understandings.
We've made a mess of things.
We blame unbelievers that they hate us, that they mock us, that they want nothing to do with us. We use Scripture to back this up (John 15:18,19) and actually seem smugly proud of this fact (oooh if they hate us we must be doing something right, huh??). But I blame us. And I think it's time for Christianity as a whole to actually accept some responsibility for this great divide.
God tells us that others will know who are true Christians because of their love (John 13:35). THAT is the distinguishing feature that will set us apart. He also says that through that love people will experience His love to them (John 17:23). Yet right now, I think love would be far down on the list that Christians are known for. I think we have shown ourselves to be a lot of things other than loving. We've decided that rules, disagreements, separation, and judging are more important than love. As if they can't coincide. Whether it be to unbelievers or to fellow Christians, true Christian love is way too rare.
We've just got it all together though don't we? We are the loudest to scream out at those who don't match our standards, to our government, to those who *gasp* fall into sin; but you don't loudly hear us admitting our own struggles, failures, and weaknesses. As if we have arrived and are perfect. As if our churches are.
In the next couple blogs I will explain more specifically what has made me feel this way; what I see as true Biblical love; and how I hope we can possibly mend our ways.
For now, I am simply embarrassed.
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This is such an interesting topic and i'm excited to hear more about what you've got to say! I do agree that we are not known at all for the things we are told to be known for in the Bible. Love... good deeds, honorable conduct. Instead we are known as hypocrites and back biters. Which is really sad. I love how it is put in 1 Peter 2:11-12: "Beloved i urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." We've been studying this in our Womens Bible Study and this made me think of how yes, we will be ridiculed and made fun of for our beliefs...but it should be about our beliefs and how "weird" we are that we think you should save sex until marriage or because we believe Christ is coming back for us...not because we are hypocrites or because of the sin in our lives. I love when it says keep your conduct among the getiles honorable...and yet some christians look down at them and see them as somehow lower than us. We are no better than them! We are simply chosen and maybe they are too so we should not be looking down at them we should be showing them God's love and His joy and His peace.
ReplyDeleteThis reminded me of I Jn. 4:8 - Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love." Although most Christians know this verse, I wonder how many truly ponder its meaning. It's pretty simple...and sobering. And it saddens me to think of how many are missing out on the grace of God in their own lives (And about the years I spent missing it)...because if you've really experienced it, it's impossible not to share it.
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