Interesting question, don’t you think? The reason I find myself wondering this is as a continuation of my last post titled, “Absence of Correction”. Think about how Jesus as a person is characterized by man’s religion. Things like “Jesus is love”, “Jesus loves me”, “Jesus loves the little children”, “Jesus is kind”, “Jesus take the wheel”, …is joy, …is peace, all come to mind. While he is all of those things, in consideration of the words he used with the generation of Jews he faced during his earthly ministry, how would he be viewed in today’s PC culture, nice and loving or mean and hateful?
This is not a trick question. In fact, it’s an important question to consider and answer for yourself. Especially when the PC culture of our country has largely managed to flip the meaning of love and hate around in a way completely opposite from the meaning and understanding that can be gleaned from the word of God. And as I always like to do, on one end of the spectrum of faith you have people who don’t believe the Bible is the word of God and on the other end you have people who do. More importantly, you have non-believers who don’t understand the first thing about what the Bible actually says and believers who only understand it as far as the teachings of their chosen denomination.
The other reason I’ve been thinking about this is because I think “religion” and “faith” as it is manifested in this day and age and as it relates to the continuous spiritual battle we are in each and every day, blurs the line between the truth and the lie. The form it seems to take is this “all are welcome” doctrine that suggests everyone, regardless of their carnality is “accepted” into the church. And more importantly, that if you, as a “fundamentalist”, refuse to accept any and all deviant behavior, you’re the one with the problem, you’re the one who needs correction, you’re the one being hateful, you’re the one exhibiting a non-Christian attitude.
So, my effort here is to shine the light of truth on this bad doctrine by taking an historical look at the words spoken by Jesus himself to the “untoward generation” he faced before he was ultimately crucified. I do this because it is my sense that the way Jesus is “packaged” for consumption by mainstream denominations is as this perpetual “nice guy” who didn’t have a mean bone in his body, who went about exhibiting love and “niceness” wherever he traveled and that we should all model ourselves after Him as that type of person. I also do this because I think this doctrine produces limp noodled Christians who are neither prepared nor understand what it means to “Fight the good fight”, “as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”, who have “put on the whole armour of God”. Also producing “Christians” who, I believe, are ill equipped to stand against spiritual wickedness in high places; forces actively trying to oppose and overthrow God, who “make merchandise” of your average run-of-the-mill soul available to Satan for the pickin’.
Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].
Just search on the word generation in the New Testament and look at the words Jesus used when speaking with the generation of Israel he faced: vipers, evil, adulterous, wicked, faithless, perverse, serpents, sinful, untoward. That doesn’t sound very “nice” does it? In today’s terms, Jesus sounds like a “big meany”, doesn’t he? Answer this question: Did Jesus say these things out of love or out of hate? That is a trick question…
I contend that he said these things out of unadulterated love because he was telling that generation of the nation of Israel exactly what they needed to hear, which was without question, the truth as judged by God almighty.
Now fast forward to our age and consider the language that is “allowed” to be spoken and the language that is not allowed. And I’m talking both within the typical denominational church and the secular church of amorality largely represented by the doctrine of atheism. If Jesus were alive today and walked around speaking the truth as he did during his earthly ministry, he would be summarily dismissed as some judgmental, mean, hateful, evil man who lacks the “sensitivity” to understand the plight of all of the “victimhood” groups in existence today.
I mean, stop and think about it. What would Jesus say to those who identify themselves with LGBTQism, with NAMBLAism, Abortionism, Pedophiliaism, Socialism, Communism, etc? As I’ve said before and I’ll keep saying it over and over again, secularism teaches that “If it feels good do it”, which is to say, “my morals are my morals and your morals are your morals, and don’t tell me what I can and can’t do because that’s judgmental”. And as time goes on, that mindset slowly but surely creeps into Christian doctrine at large as evidenced by the so called “acceptance” of homosexuality into various denominations. Not all, but many… What a slippery slope… What’s next? Will they start accepting transgender people into the fold because they deserve an exemption from passages like Romans 12: 1&2?
Romans 12:1-2
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Like it or not, agree or not, this is what Christian love is; telling people what they need to hear, not what they will allow you to say and not say. If you want to know what ails our society today, this is the root. We live in a time when relationships are conducted in such a way as to completely avoid anything that might be construed as hurtful. As I’ve said before, to think that we can and should focus only on the positive at the exclusion of the negative is out of balance and out of touch with reality. Not to mention the fact that by and large the expectation these days is to conduct our relationships in virtual space. It seems we are less and less able and/or willing to sit down face to face and actually relate to each other, talk with one another; speak as freely with each other about “negative” things as we do about “positive” things.
Likewise, if Jesus is to be our example, we must consider the full scope of the love he demonstrated with the “untoward generation” of the nation of Israel he faced while alive. Here’s one of the clearest examples of the “balanced” love Jesus demonstrated that we can learn from to understand the true love He had for Israel.
John 8:1-11
Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.
And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with [his] finger wrote on the ground, [as though he heard them not].
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
And they which heard [it], being convicted by [their own] conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, [even] unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
On the one hand, Jesus calls out the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees for their own sin causing them to be “convicted by their own conscience” (love, in case you don’t recognize it), and on the other hand, while he does not condemn the adulterous woman, he tells her “go, and sin no more”. So, in answer to the question, “Is Jesus a Nice Guy”, no, he’s not a nice guy, he is God in the flesh demonstrating what love is, and at the same time, what love is not.
Love is the subtle balance to be able to discern right and wrong in each other, not for the purpose of condemning each other, but rather to help each other recognize the need to stop our destructive/sinful behavior, all the while realizing our own fallibility. Love is not the notion that it is “never” our place to correct each other in any way. Whether we’re on the receiving end of someone offering correction or the one offering it up, love is the healthy and often necessary exchange of admonishment. Said differently, to think that someone is being hateful, judgmental, unloving, “mean”, etc., when wanting to correct a loved one is itself deeply hurtful and unloving.
Just to be clear, I’m not talking about admonishing each other concerning petty things like the things your parents might have told you when you were a child. Things like, “don’t pick your nose”, “say excuse me when you burp”, or “don’t hit your sister”. I’m talking about the weightier things of life like those listed in Galatians 5: 19 through 21.
Galatians 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Again, to be clear, you are free to choose to do any of these things. That’s between your conscience and God, to whom you will give account when the time comes. But, make no mistake, these things are first carnal and second wrong, like it or not. And I must point out that the first four things listed are all of a sexual nature. Have you ever noticed how each of the “isms” I listed above have an underlying sexual component despite their effort to portray them as some human “right” to be “accepted” in society at large? They want everyone to feel sorry for them because they’ve been ostracized from society for so long, while at the heart of their deviancy is the carnal lust for whatever their chosen sexual preference is, driving them to couch it all in terms of being victimized. You want to talk about psychological gymnastics, how delusional…
Lastly, when denominational Christianity repackages doctrine, repackages the church “experience” in hopes of appealing to their congregants, in hopes of drawing in more people, are they not just soft-peddling “Christianity” to dull the hard edge of truth that in actuality is black and white; which is to say, there’s nothing gray about it…
Mathew 7:13-14
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
