Let's get out of God's way

As much as I can bemoan aging, I can gratefully say this: Older means wiser. At least in my case. And more boldly confident. Not perfect, but progressing. Not fully knowledgable, but always learning. Keep that in mind as you read. (In other words, nowhere in this writing am I assuming myself to be perfect — past (especially) or present.)

According to a 2014 Pew Research Center study, 70.6 percent of Americans identified themselves as Christians in this country. That would mean the majority of Americans believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, and He came to die for our sins. That means we also believe in the Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

If you fit within that majority, stay with me. 

By reading and studying any of the Old Testament at all, we've figured out that human beings have proven themselves quite incapable of upholding any law of God perfectly — or even very well. In fact, humans in those days failed pretty miserably. (Maybe just like today?)

So that's where Christ came in. We, as humans, were so incapable that we needed God to help us out (save us). So He gave us Jesus, who came to this earth, lived as a human for 33 years and experienced exactly what it's like to live like we do; then He became sin for a short while (died on the cross; rose three days later), so that our sins would not condemn us anymore. 

By suffering crucifixion for us — by taking on our sin — Christ fulfilled the law of God — the law humans failed to to live up to — and placed us in a position of grace, mercy and forgiveness for our sins. Because He loved us. 

Thank God. 

And while Jesus lived on this earth, he taught us some very basic things. Not only did He teach us these things, He expects us to do our very best to follow Him and His teachings.

First and foremost, Jesus told us the two greatest commandments are these: from Matthew 22:37-40

“'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'"  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (italics mine)

All of the law (of Moses — i.e., 10 Commandments) hinges on loving God and loving one another. If we manage to focus our attention on loving to the best of our ability (and relying on God to help us), then all the law — all of God's commands and the "do's and don't's" fall into place. ALL of them. 

To me, that means the wisest and most efficient things I can attend to in my own life are loving God and loving you. If I truly love God, then I want to and will do what pleases Him. It means that if I love others (and remember, too, that love covers a multitude of sins), then I'm in this imperfect world living a life that produces the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which are these:

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law." — Galatians 5:22-24

Have you seen these much lately? From the so-called majority of Christians in this country?

I haven't. As a majority in this country — a majority that is supposed to be loving, kind, good, gentle and self-controlled, we have failed. 

Fellow Christians, to "hate" a sin means to reject it, to turn from it, to not do it. Nowhere in the Bible does hating a sin mean viciously speaking toward another human being, calling people insulting or despicable names, condemning them or behaving in ways that harm them. 

Not anywhere.

And nowhere does the Bible place sins in a hierarchy. A sin is a sin is a sin is a sin. That means in light of recent events, hate and self-righteousness are just as bad as the other sin(s) we condemn. 

We need to get off our high horses of self-righteousness and recognize that our job as Christians is to spread the GOOD news of Jesus Christ. If it's good news, why the heck would we beat someone over the head with it? Why would we tell people horrible things about themselves, threaten them and try to force them to believe what we do? 

Jesus didn't do that. The disciples didn't do that.  If God gives us free will and a choice to accept or reject Him and/or His teachings, then we need to do the same. Hounding, harassing and hating is not part of the deal. 

Jesus simply, strongly and lovingly presented the Truth to unbelievers. Then He gave them the opportunity to choose whether or not to accept that truth and abide by that truth.

If a group of people rejected Jesus' teachings, He — and later the disciples — moved along to another group of people. If people accepted His teachings, Jesus and His disciples stayed awhile to nurture the faith of the new believers so that they, too, could grow stronger and spread the word. 

In love. 

But this love thing isn't just about "unbelievers;" it's about us — brothers and sisters in Christ, whom Jesus wants and prayed for (John 17:21) to be as one, to stand ONE with Him and with God — with God's Holy Spirit being the connecting key to doing just that. 

We're failing at that, too. We are condemning and criticizing one another for sinning within the Christian faith. We are self-righteous and put ourselves above others — again placing sin in some kind of hierarchy.  

We need to remember that we are not the ones who are supposed to convict one another of our sins. The Holy Spirit does that. And as the Holy Spirit does this, it guides us to a stronger life in Christ. This is a process and takes time. (And, please, let's let God do the judging.)

One of the coolest and most loving things about God is that He works with us from wherever we are spiritually. All of us are at different places in our faith, yet many of us try to force other Christians to be exactly where we are, because in our own minds, we're in a better, higher, more Godly place. 

Perhaps God should decide that. 

One thing I believe about God beyond a shadow of a doubt — because He loves us and understands us in all our weaknesses — is that because He knows our individual stories and the stories behind our stories, He is infinitely patient with us. He uses our lives, our experiences, our strengths, our weaknesses, and yes, our very sins, to get us where we need to be in Him.

As fellow Christians, we have got to get out of God's way! Instead, we need to be working alongside him; we need to be like Christ — producing those fruits of the Spirit. Be as gentle and encouraging with someone entangled in sin or in some deep, dark hole or untruth of life as God is. Do with others what you would have them to do with you.

Remember, God gives Christians choices, too. And time, thankfully. He doesn't harass us. He isn't mean to us. Neither should we harass or be hateful to one another. 

Christians, we need to repent. We need to reevaluate our actions. We need to take our own inventories, instead of everyone else's. 

As a majority in this country, while we have been busy tearing one another apart, we also have been quite busy tearing this country apart. 

Is that what we want? Is that what God wants?