This has been a particularly difficult week for me with the death of my brother. I am going to write about something I have seen first hand. To be honest, this grieves me, like nothing else, save the death of my brother.
First know, I am a Christian. I am not attacking the Christian faith. I am strongly objecting to how more and more Christians are treating other fellow Christians they don’t see eye to eye with because of music, dress, etc. The list is well nigh endless. What is worse, in my opinion, is how non believers are treated.
This is my response to what I see as more and more judgmental Christians out there who seems to think they are something special and snub those that aren’t believers. The only people Jesus ever blasted were the religious leaders of His time. They put Him down for hanging out with ‘sinners’, for eating with them, for even being around them, yet Christ said He came not for the righteous but for the sinners of which we all are. The only difference between us and others is we are saved sinners. Of course we strive to be Christ like and through the Holy Spirit many of those sins are gone but we commit one of the worse sins by driving people away by being hateful towards them! Jesus said the world would hate us for loving Him…but is that the reason you are hated? Or its it because you bully and put down others and try to dictate their lives?
If you notice the Jews were being run by the worse nation in the world, Rome, yet Jesus did nothing to try to change Rome. He never fought against it, never ranted about their pagan gods, nor how badly they treated the Jews…why was that? Because change comes through the heart first. Eventually Rome fell, due to changed hearts but not by bullying or forcing their ways on them. We cannot ignore the teachings of Christ to love others, even our enemies saying well He is going to judge the world’s sins and smite ‘the wicked’! If He does, that is for Him alone to do…not us. I do not see one verse in the Bible that says we have the right to pass judgment on others or condemn them either.
Christians are becoming lost themselves and hearing too many Christian leaders telling us to ‘fight back’ and do this and that and we have gone past the defense mode, to the attack mode and this goes against everything Christ taught us.
Too many have become just plain hateful, twisting scriptures to justify it. The Bible only says we can judge other Christians, NOT outsiders. The only one worthy of judging is Christ Himself…not one of us can judge others salvation.
I realize Christians get worn down by the attacks we meet constantly on the net and at times in our day to day lives, but you cannot assume everyone is out to attack your faith and be so defensive all the time. Approach those that do want to know more with love and kindness! You are representing Christ in everything you do. This is in the Bible. One day you will have to give an account for how you treated people. I think this is something that oughta cause a lot of trembling knees…
The song is just the chorus of “Love them like Jesus” by Casting Crowns
