The Church is splintered. All of us carry are cudgel and work hard to prove that the other denominations are deceived and deserve God's Wrath for a range of offenses like idolatry and wrongful doctrines. A verse or two comes to my mind, "If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other," (1 Corinthians 3:5), and "Keep reminding God's people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen." (2 Timothy 2;14). I have been in disputes with many brothers in Christ of late, and the sheer severity and intensity has almost ruined my love for the Church (but not my love for Christ). I have learned a hard lesson from my correspondence with dogmatic drill sergeants who claim be disciples. It has caused me to reassess my own bearing and demeanor in these matters, and has convicted me that we must be careful not to become so zealous to be right, that we forget to, "..speak the truth in love..." (Ephesians 4:15). I have become concerned that in Christendom, particularly in the West, we have become so concerned with stating cases, apologetics, and dogma that we have forgotten we are ambassadors and representatives of Christ, "Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:11-21 NLT). We are more concerned with law keeping and sound doctrine (noble pursuits), but we forget to share the other aspects of God, "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law--justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things," (Matthew 23:23) and "Everyone who loves knows God, for God is love." (1 John 4:8).
Mahatma Gandhi became disillusioned with Hinduism because of its caste system (in which person is born into a station in life, like royalty or poor, and you can never excel to another station). Seeking another religion, Gandhi began to read the Bible, and became fascinated by the One True God who actually destroys caste systems, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28). But upon reaching out to church leaders in India to adopt Christianity as his own faith, Gandhi was met with fierceness and bitterness, the church leaders told him they didn't want an Indian and Hindu. To which Gandhi said, "there is a caste system in Christianity, I love your Christ but not your Christians." What a poor witness and opportunity to reach someone seeking, who was done with the those gods and devils and was inches away from faith in Jesus Christ alone (Acts 4:10-12). This happened again more recently with Indian Government, the President of India wanted to change the religion of nation to Christianity. But the response from Churches he sought support from said "we do not have enough money to help," what a Mammonist response! (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13). Did not Christ create all things? (John 1:6, Colossians 1:16) and did He not promise our Father in Heaven would take care of us more so than sparrows? (Matthew 6:24-36). This is case and point that brothers and sisters in Christ were more concerned with earthly matters, in this case money nad prejudices than with the love of god and being ambassadors for Christ.
The world is watching us brothers and sisters. In 2011, four Christians from the South toured Europe to interview people about Christianity, in what is called "Beware of Christians." The documentary went from Sweden to Spain to Italy and Germany. The consensus of unsaved and worldly people, even fallen away Christians was bleak. The interviewer asked a woman, "are your Christian friends different?" To which they responded, "No, they are just busy on Sundays." Some of my apologist brothers probably would say, "this happened because they didn't stay dogmatically to the truth, and became lax, allowing worldliness into the Church." Perhaps, but then the documentary moved into Italy, to Rome the seat of Roman Catholicism, which the lead interviewer remarked, "We built statues and temples for Jesus, but no one is seeing Him, they aren't seeing Him in us," a reference no doubt to that we are temples of Christ and the Trinity (1 Corinthians 3:16, Colossians 1:27). The take away from that sentence isn't to shame our Catholic brothers, but rather a point I am trying to make, people see our fiery zeal, "But the people there refused to welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem, When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?"But Jesus turned and rebuked them," (Luke 9:53-55), or they see our compromises, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound all the more? God forbid/By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him." (Romans 6:1-8). The problem is they aren't seeing Christ.
The quarrels I have gotten into with other brothers and sisters over Eschatology (end times), Doxology (doctrines), and even Theology has made me weary, depressed, and frankly sympathetic to sinners. My faith in the Savior Jesus Christ is not shaken, but the words He uttered are being more poignant, "I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent." (Luke 5:32, Mark 2:17). Egos in our ecumenical landscape abound, and everyone is vying to be seen, heard, and to state their cases. I have watched people pounce on those with differing views, like lions who were prowling, and the result is condemnation of a Christian brother who sees things maybe not in Solae Scriptura way, but the Apostle Paul told us to be gentle with those who have views we may see as weaker, "Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don't argue with them about what they think is right or wrong." (Romans 14:1), "We who are strong ought to bear with the shortcomings of the weak and not to please ourselves," (Romans 15:1), "Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak," (1 Corinthians 8:9), "But reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for you know that it breeds quarreling," (2 Timothy 2:2:23), and, "But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, arguments, and quarrels about the Law, because these things are pointless and worthless." (Titus 4:9). And yet we do quarrel and try with our zeal and self-assurance to win people over by beating our point of view into them. We take a candle and set their cloak on fire, which they are wearing! It is not wrong to correct a brother, I am not saying that, but we must share the Truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).
Man is frail and weak. We aren't perfect like our Perfect Loving Savior. We have failings and weaknesses that weight us down. Man is weak, "How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble!," (John 14:1), "Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!," (Matthew 26:41), and "For, "All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever." And this is the word that was preached to you." (1 Peter 1:24-25). Thank God that He is powerful in our weaknesses, "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-11). How weak we are brothers and sisters. We resolve to do grand and glorious things for God, but find we are incapable apart from Him. We want to speak the Truth, but we must not forgo love and kindness. If we are to speak the Truth is must be from love (Ephesians 4:15) and this is what Love looks like, "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things," (1 Corinthians 13:4-7) and if we are to share God's Spirit and preach, we must have fruit, " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23).
I want to apologize to any brothers or sisters in Christ across all denomiantions. If I have offended, hurt, and wounded you, please forgive me. What I have said has been from my zeal to preach the Gospel and the Truth, but I now realize we must do that in love and take care with those who haven't yet arrived to place to hear it. We need to remember that our judgements can hurt people, and Jesus and the Apostle told us to beware of judging, "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? " (Matthew 7:1-3) and "Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God." (1 Corinthians 4:5). While certainly the Apostle tells us to judge certain matters in the Church, "Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church?," (1 Corinthians 6:3-4), and "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:12-13). But this same Apostle Paul was the one who wrote about love and the fruits of spirit, which means if we ever judge a matter it must be in love, gentleness, kindness, and self control. Above all we must remember to love our fellow disciples, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35).
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