“You aren’t sharing the Gospel? How can you say you love Jesus”? “What you studying in the scriptures? Nothing!? Man you ain’t going to ever grow like that”! “Relational witnessing? What is that? I can’t find that in my bible!”. “You go to who’s church? Man, don’t you know that your pastor and Jakes, Dollar, Hinn, Warren ________ (fill in the blank) are friends”? “What’s your pastor’s name? Don’t you know that he was at a conference with heretic”!? “You don’t know what justification means? Man, do you even understand the Gospel”?! “Have you discipled anyone since you have been saved; that person does what, there is no way they are saved; you believe what; you don’t know that wow; you don’t do that dude; you haven’t read this, you aren’t interested in theology; you can’t tell the difference…………?????!!!!!!!
This was my Christianity, arrogant, cocky, self-righteous, judgmental, all head and about as much heart as when the Tin Man meets Dorothy! To sum it up I was not a pleasant Christian to be around. Always handing out unsolicited books, always telling people what I thought about false teachers, always showing people how smart I was, what books I had read, what I believed, proud to show people I knew the difference between Biblical and Systematic Theology and I always wondered why 8 out of 10 people didn’t want to spend much time with me, like the kid who doesn’t discover deodorant until he is 18!
Why am I telling you this? Because those things above defined me and I don’t want them to define you. If we are to error lets do it on the side of grace. Let’s be over-gracious instead of overly critical. I lived my Christian life looking for rotten apples on a pretty well off tree. So I overlooked bushels and bushels of ripe sweet apples and only found the ones that have some damage and would say of that tree “look, you see this tree is no good”. Not finding areas of God’s grace in a persons life is a critical flaw! Yeah a lot of people are jacked up. Some of that is due to being under bad teaching, some of it due to having bad experiences and bringing in a lot of baggage. But man, if you were to check my luggage you may find some things that would cause you to treat me differently you may not even want to travel this journey with me anymore. If you look for the bad in individuals you will find it that is a promise.
I also write this to tell you not to be as pushy as I was. I was aggressive (well maybe still am) and for some reason that never drew people in and I always pointed the finger at them. I could never see that I was critical, that I was judgmental (I would always say “Jesus calls us to be fruit inspectors, uh, not really) I could never see that Jesus ate, talked and loved on people and met them exactly as they were and went where they were. Jesus didn’t say “go, clean up your life and theology then come back and see me”. He simply extends them grace and love and because of that the religious elite called Him all type of unsavory names. Jesus doesn’t tell the woman who is crying at His feet “hey go get your theology right before you interact with me, dont’ you know who I am”. Actually there is a lovely post found here about this. Nope, He actually rebukes the leader whose house he is at because of that.
I am going to be honest. Most of us with really good theology have really bad hearts. We can be very critical of others and we can be so unloving. We live by the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law. We are zealous for truth more than we are people and yes Jesus is the truth but He values people so much more. I don’t want you to travel the road I was on and if you are on it I want you off of it immediately. We aren’t helping people we are hurting them and wounding them and many times those relationships are very difficult to repair. Sometimes Jesus just wants us to listen, love and serve, not give a bunch of deep biblical answers while over looking the experiences that has shaped the individual.
I close with this, a gentle knock is much more receptive than a battle ram. Think about it, if the police comes to your door and knocks it down with a battle ram, when they just could have knocked gently while you and your family was eating dinner, what would you think? Would that not be excessive force? We don’t burn down the house to get rid of a mouse do we? Paul commands us to correct with “gentleness and patience”. Jesus says “be as wise as serpents and gentle as doves”. Peter says “give a defense with gentleness”. I believe gentleness, patience, kindness, respect, man just plain ol’ common sense love is the way to go. Man I still have been trying to repair relationships from such mistakes and I don’t want you to have to experience what I experienced. I once heard someone say “experience is the wisdom of fools”. I think especially when you have evidence!
That was scary. As I was reading that first paragraph I thought you had some type of recording of the person I used to be. Really.
Great post though. I couldn’t agree more. Can you imagine if Christians today would choose to error on the side of grace? We might actually make a difference.
I am telling you Mark, I have to slap myself about every 3 days. And yes I believe we could really put a dent in the world for Jesus (oop’s my Calvinism is a bit weak).
Lionel great post.
I have actually been wrestling with this and how this plays out with laboring with believers who believe different. As we have been ministering out at the mobile home park, other believers are asking to help. Now this has been an answered prayer. Now the question is, how do we deal with differences on secondary issues? You know, some like to use the sinners’ prayer while other’s don’t. Others see salvation as man’s choice, while others see it is completely God’s sovereignty. I could go on.
The question I have is when do we deal with differences in theology between believers who are laboring together? Now when this is done, that modeling of grace and answering with gentleness most certaintly should be lived.
Look forward to your insight.
Phillip
Phill Fletch,
That would be a huge struggle. My problem would be with people who would go into a language, or those who would teach in a second work of grace or “Baptism of the Spirit”. That is because those are pet peeves for me. I think we can set it up before we go and ask since you guys are partnering with us, can you submit to our teaching.
I think the SP wouldn’t be bad and I don’t evangelize like a Calvinist either.
Lionel,
Thank you for writing the my “unauthorized biography” in your first 2 paragraphs.
My problem was that I had devoted my heart to men, a movement, and a theological system so that I could not distinguish between them and Christ. What they said, was what Christ said. They had usurped my devotion to Him.
So, what was the cure? First, God undermined my theological system by His Word. Then, he sent sickness to cripple my pride. Better to be humbled by God now than on the Judgment Day.
When I see the way brothers argue on blogs and forums, it really grieves my heart, and I believe also God’s heart. We’re called to “teach one another.” That presupposes that both parties are teachable.
Lionel,
Been incommunicado while on a brief retreatm.
I have been blessed once again by this post.it is important that in seeking to guard orthodoxy,we do not miss the prize,at the end of the race.
God bless you.
Bro L, spot on!
I’ve been considering a personal study where I might take some of the theological challenges Christ faced and figure out how some of these hard-as-nails “battle ram” Internet theologians might respond to them compared with how Christ actually did respond to them. I suspect it might be enlightening.
For example:
- A politically conservative Christian might commend the rich young ruler for his business acumen and proceed to instruct him on how to generate additional profits so that he can help fund some mission trips.
- A theological liberal might fuss at blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10 who called out to the “son of David” for his audacity at thinking that Jesus was actually a descendant of David.
- A legalist might condemn the woman at the well as unfit to even draw water for Jesus Christ. After all, if anyone found Jesus there, His witness might be tarnished by association. For crying out loud, they were there together at the well ALONE!!!
I know how I’ve answered some people in the past and how I’ve learned to temper my comments. I’m still learning, but I want to follow Christ’s example.