Brothers and Sisters

"Too much done in the name of religious correctness is labeled holiness."

WE ARE CAUGHT UP in a religion of words, battling “thees” and “thous” against doctrines of denominations, and so we judge one another over things that don’t matter. What I call a battle of lettuces. My daughter once worked at a restaurant which offered both iceberg and romaine. Many people, she found, didn’t know the difference. And neither should we. Too much done in the name of religious correctness is labeled holiness. When God sees the heart. He is more concerned for our love for each other and our love for those lost sheep that He died for than He is whether we spoke His name at the beginning of the prayer or at the end. While we argue over liturgy and pew placement, people are listening to the devil’s lies and growing confident in their sins.

Or maybe that’s us. I listened to a popular minister endorse judgment, calling the apostle Paul stern, and I could only think of all the times he said, “Thank you,” and, “I’m praying for you,” in his epistles. Here’s someone who knew religion. He was at the top of it. And yet the hate in his heart encouraged him to kill people for holiness. God is in charge of purity, of cleanliness. Jesus died to remove our sins as far as the east is from the west, a truth the apostle knew well. He later called all he knew, all he’d learned dung, when seen against the love of God. He said we were never to offend people. We were to seek peace and pursue it, to be peacemakers. He said never to eat what caused someone to doubt Jesus. He told the church at Philippi to pray to God with thanksgiving, and God’s peace would protect their hearts and minds. Paul was, because of the love of God, a completely changed man. A generous, loving man with God’s Word at the center of His being.

READ “Thank You For John Smith.”

To know God is to love Him. To judge people is to not know Him at all. He didn’t judge. He surrendered His will to the will of the Father and allowed men to mock and humiliate Him, so they could be saved from the very thing that they spat in His face. We are to be like Him. We show men Jesus through the love of God seen in our actions, heard in our words, and walk hand-in-hand with the Holy Spirit, the wisdom of God. He leads. We follow. He stills. We rest with Him. He moves forward. We move with Him and never ahead, doing our own thing, nor lagging behind, shuffling our feet.

So much of ministry I’ve seen in the church is done with the mind, through human choices, absent of God. Oh, when we have services, He shows up. But how much more does He desire to do, except we are too busy planning our Sunday meal and our time watching the latest sports game? God isn’t against food or sports. That isn’t the point. The point is “first” is “first,” and we must put Him first. Especially in our behavior with people who are our brothers and sisters. Whether they are labeled Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Assembly of God, or even Christian Mormons and Catholics, what we see in them is Jesus. What we hear from them is He lived, He died, He rose from the dead, and confession was made for salvation.

There is no upper echelon of children of God, no social ladder to climb, and there should be no judgment from us for spiritual knowledge and maturity or the finer points of Scripture. Do they preach Jesus? Do they love Him? Then so do we.

“When you fail to love your weaker brother or sister by not considering how your actions will impact them —and therefore solidify distortions and unhealthy practices into their mind and thus wounding them—you betray Christ, because you are not living in harmony with his character of love.” (1 Corinthians 8:12, Remedy)

“To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22)

“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,” (Philippians 3:7-8)

“I will say even more: The fanciest delicacies, the richest treasures, the highest honors this world has to offer—they are all nothing but garbage compared to the greatest gift of all that comes from knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I give up everything this world has to offer so that I might be with Christ and be recreated in Christlike character.” (Philippians 3:8-9, Remedy)

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com