I must make a confession. I fell into the Radical Christianity Camp for a long while, even made a lot of posts on it. While my zeal I think was not evil, I am not seeing the pitfalls. The slogans of "All You Need Is Jesus," and "Prioritize Your Relationship With God," are good. It is important to make your relationship with The Lord a priority, but not at the expense of your relationships with people. Many ministers fall into this trap neglecting their families and becoming ministry addicts because God is the priority right?! We who neglect relationships in the name of religion actually are making war on the Trinity itself. God himself is Three, The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. They are One God, and yet Three Persons, we see the relationship of our Lord Jesus with The Father in the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit, which is a model of our own balance in relationships, that we should tend to our relationship with God and People! Do not forget Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31). As the Cross has two beams, our lives are meant to have the vertical post of a relationship with God, and vertical post of people we love, remove either and its not a cross!
Some of the most damaging cults teach you to hate the body, relationships with people, and preform asceticism, "These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made
religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no
value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
" (Colossians 2:23, ESV). They want you to be against family and close bonds with people and focus on being closer to God. Its an easy trap to fall for because its convincing, are we not to "count all things lost but knowing Christ?," (Philippians 3:8), yes, but we have to define Scripture with Scripture and the same apostle spoke against those forbidding marriage, "Those who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created
to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the
truth.For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving." (1 Timothy 4:3-4). You see the same apostle who saint count all things lost but knowing Christ also spoke against those saying not to marry and enjoy certain foods. There is a balance in Scripture, one is to urge us back towards our relationship with God, the other the relationships with people! To keep us from veering off into neglecting God or neglecting people!
We have to remember the Same God who says Love him with all we are, also said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him" (Genesis 2:18). The Helper The Lord mean was the first Woman Eve. Adam was in Paradise with full access to God's presence, no sin had happened to cause a separation, and yet Adam still felt lonely and longed for a companionship, and this was not evil, because The Trinity is Relational, its a Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and so Adam was wanting to be like what He is made in Image of, to have a closeness with others, and so the Wife and the Child become like other parts of the Human Triad showing the image of the Divine Trinity. It is so sad that radical Christianites attack this, misusing Paul's words about he'd rather people not marry (2 Corinthians 7:1-16) but he bottoms out in the thought with this, "Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband." Being single was his preference, but he did not make a rule of it, Our Lord Jesus even crushed the idea of not having families when the Apostle Peter brought it up, "Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ And he said, “‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”“Then why did Moses say in the law that a man could give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away?”they asked. Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended. 9 And I tell you this, whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery—unless his wife has been unfaithful.Jesus’ disciples then said to him, “If this is the case, it is better not to marry!” Not everyone can accept this statement,” Jesus said. “Only those whom God helps. Some are born as eunuchs, some have been made eunuchs by others, and some choose not to marry for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can." (Matthew 19:4-12). There are people that will takes these red letters of Jesus and say he prefers being eunuch for the Kingdom of God, but that is wrong. In that full passage Jesus is addressing marriage, and singleness. We also must remember that Jesus was able to come into the world as a Man because of a women named Mary and he was reared by a man named Joseph. Even in coming and growing up in a human body, the Almighty Son was in a family, just as He is part of the Trinity always. Everything about God's nature and how he hardwired us is to have relationships, with Him and with each other, for he told the First Man and woman, "be fruitful and multiply, and subdue the earth." (Genesis 1:28). Family is not the anomaly, it is the edict, irt is the norm and what God urges, staying single for the Kingdom of God is a specific calling and an exception, not the rule!
I am greatly sorry if in my radical phase in years past if I did any harm to this balance. I was zealous, I wanted to urge people to prioritizing their relationship with God. A good thing. But we should not do that at expense of relationships with our husbands, wives, children, friends, and etc. For if all we need is God, then as the apostle said it would be better to depart, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith." (Philippians 1:21-25). Notice Paul acknowledges it would be better to go and be with Christ in eternity, but that he desires to stay for love of people. See there is the tension, the balance! Christ has put us in the world, if He intended us to keep us secluded to Himself, well why send us to Earth? Just keep us in heaven. But no, he wants us to rub up against sinners like us, to share love and be loved by people, and yes lead souls to paradise through faith in the Son of God Jesus Christ the Lord, but its not a Pokemon Catch Em All game, its relational. And do not forget those who urge being eunuchs and not having families only exist to teach that because two people fell in a love and had children, so their very existence negates their teaching!
So when you have your quiet time with God, remember to have time with your loved ones. No not neglect one or the other. Just as the Trinity is a community, is Three, so we need to be connecting with God whom we love, and with people whom we love! To be the Image of God truly we must connect in the Spirit with God and in spirit with people! For we are not an island, but a "City on a Hill." And cities are full of people who love each other. Amen.
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