Does Your Church Throw God's Word In His Face?
Posted by:
Bible Blogger on
February 26, 2007 at
6:31PM EST
I received a friend request over the weekend from the Pastor of a
church that if I lived in Colorado I'd likely attend on a regular
basis. This Pastor and his church is dedicated to doing what Christ
called us to do without worry about the man made box that most
Christians tend to put Jesus in called religion. It's about Jesus and
not about what the denomination's headquarters tells you. It's about
feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and most of all showing the love
of Jesus.
As I checked out the links on their site, my red flag started to work
it's way up the flagpole. The red flag was the red flag of
accountability...a flag that many churches who profess they "show the
love of Jesus" like to keep in a closet in the basement with a large
sign on the door that says "Beward of the Leopard."
I will be one of the first people to stand up and say we need to show
the love of Jesus to everyone regardless of their past or current
situations. A human being is not their sin and you MUST as a Christian
separate the two. Unfortunately, because so many Christians don't
separate the two we've gotten to the point that many churches who claim
to love God turn a blind eye to sin in someone's life and never
confront them on it because they want to "get along" and have them
continue to come to their church.
It's important to realize that churches who do not speak to their
members about sin and turning away from what God calls sin is in fact
denying the word of God. We are specifically told by the Lord that
when we see anyone who is wandering away from the truth of God we're to
turn them back.
"19My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20let
him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save
his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." - James 5:19-20 (ESV)
When a church says they're "open minded" and they don't "judge" they're
basically saying they don't believe in sin and they don't believe in
the instructions in James that we are to bring someone back to the
truth of Jesus Christ. They take the responsibility God's given them
to be not only accountable to Him but also to each other and throw it
back in God's face.
Now, I'm not saying that you need to be the kind of person to run up
and start telling people their sins. Jesus didn't do that. Jesus
built a relationship with people exactly where they were and after the
relationship was established...when they knew Him and knew that He
loved them...He then spoke to them about their sin and encouraged them
to turn away from it.
But notice the last part of that paragraph...He still spoke to them about their sin!
I was happy to discover that this church who contacted me over the
weekend does believe in James 5:19-20 and they do make it a part of
their church's belief system. These are people who I think are doing
it right...show the love of Christ and at the same time don't deny who
He was and ALL that he stood for and taught to us. Unfortunately,
there's a lot of churches who put off the aura of this church without
the substance of this church.
Do not be afraid to stand for the word of God if it means you'll be
unpopular with someone you've met or are trying to invite to church.
It's more important that you don't deny Christ's words than it is to
get someone into church. You may not be the person God's decided to
use to bring someone to Him. You could be a tool of Satan if you deny
God's word to a skeptic and that person calls you on it. (You're also
sinning in my opinion if you manipulate a situation where you
essentially force a non-believer you see "sinning" into confronting you
on what the Bible says...backing them into a corner and bashing them
from the beginning accomplish the same thing which is bad feelings
toward the church.)
Show them love in all cases. Stand on the truth when someone asks you
about it. Be as Christ like as possible. It's easily said, hard to do
and what we're ordered by God.
