EXPLORING THE WORD

Yes, I dare say it

I asked God what we could do differently. I was referring to the Christian approach toward homosexuality. Knowing that as Christians we claim to battle the spirit of it, our war tactics tend to mimic that of combat against the people. Many claim that we should stand on the stages and boldly preach how wrong it is for homosexual couples to marry because it is going against God, against the covenant of marriage, and ultimately against the way we were created. We do not however, plan on waging war against pride, fornication, adultery, lying, and idolatry in the same manner. These are just a few sins that if eliminated from our open battle against "the spirit," leave us as bias soldiers only carrying out part of God's battle plan. Pride for example is just one of the sins considered as much of an abomination as homosexuality (Leviticus 18:22 & Proverbs 6:17-19), yet not only do we refrain from proclaiming it, we engage in it ourselves. We teach our kids to have it, supposedly in a balanced manner, so they can get ahead. We don't necessarily teach that God's way is humility even in the areas of succeeding and reaching our goals. We often forget to tell them that God will bring us into those positions we strive for without prideful endeavors if we work with him. Fornication, adultery and lying are glorified in our movies, TV shows, books, and music and we listen to them, often finding them humorous. We support them and contribute financially even when we recognize the aspects that are against God. The list of sins that we do not wage war against can go on and on.

There are many aspects of this that need to be addressed, and I don't claim to know all of them. Of the many, a few include that either our war against the sinful spirits on a "platform" must be consistent and address ALL sins or we need to sit down. If we are not standing then we must not speak of our desire to stand against it. We must revisit the manner in which Jesus addressed sin, which I do not claim to know in its entirety, but all of us can certainly go back to all four gospels and study Jesus' ways. We would find that on his "platforms," sermons in other words, he discussed the Kingdom of Heaven, (Matt 6 & 7, Luke 6: 17-49), not the sins that are abominations. Most of us are not standing on stages, save the pastors, preachers, priests, and any other called to bring God's message from the pulpit. Let us consider though, in those arenas most in the audience are believers already so are our sermons as effective with the Kingdom Message as they should be?

When Jesus was talking to individuals, he discussed the breaches of God's commandments (Mark 10:19). He forgave sins because of their faith or love (Luke 5:20 & 7: 47-50). Without judgment and with a receivable conviction, Jesus called attention to what needed to be removed from that person's life, invited that person to change their ways and believe in him (John 4:7-28). There are many more examples of his approach. The people that he came against with harshness were the hypocrites, which were claiming to follow the law and condemning others who were not; who overlooked the areas where they had fallen short as well — sound familiar? Are we sitting down with desires to be on a platform against homosexuality, and yet our seats are saturated with pride? Many of us have overcome some sins through prayer, consistent communion with God, and the denying of the flesh, but we in no way have covered all of them in the book, which speaks of our thoughts as well. Are we sitting down in our groups of believers and talking about how appalled we are, or are we doing what Christ asked us to do, spread the message of the Kingdom and invite people to change their lives, just as he has changed ours.

Yes, I dare say it — I'M GUILTY.

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. (Matt 10:16 KJV)

Image credit: horse blinkers by Alex E. Proimos; Some rights reserved

Tags: Christian-Life | Controversial-Issues | Current-Issues | Sin-Evil

comments powered by Disqus

Published 2-11-14