Offended? But Truly Loved!

The gospel is offensive to those who refuse to believe the truth. One doesn't have to look long at the New Testament accounts to see that those who preach Christ WILL be persecuted. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:23-24 -- "but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

The reaction of the Pharisees and scribes to Jesus is the same one the Christian who speaks the truth "in love" experiences every day to some extent. Paul says preaching Christ crucified is a stumbling block. A stumbling block is an obstacle. It is anything that causes a person to trip or fall. The Jews could not accept the idea of a Messiah who would have to suffer and die. This attitude resulted not only in their rejection of Him but led to His execution as well.

As you can see from the one example I posted yesterday, this repulsion to the truth of the gospel is still found in human beings who believe that they are saved and who are religious. There were none so religious on the earth as the Jewish leadership in Christ's day. They had a religion full of good works. They were extremely self-righteous and full of pride and did not want to have their hearts exposed by Jesus for who they really were inside. Matthew 23 is a scaling rebuke of everything they stood for. Said dialogue by one of Jesus' own today would not be considered "loving," tolerant or promoting unity.

Paul had been a member of this sect -- He was a Jew of all Jews. Yet, all the good works and things he did to achieve "the righteousness of God" he considered as dung once he met the Lord on the road to Damascus. For the first time, he saw himself as God saw him, and he was repulsed by himself. Unless we come to Christ repulsed over our sinfulness and over our enmity and rejection of Him, we will face the same condemnation as the Pharisees who Jesus eventually walked away from after pronouncing judgment on them. It was a sign of judgment on them that He turned to the twelve (Jewish) apostles to continue His work after His death and to lay down the foundation of the the Church in their inspired (God-breathed) teaching that was recorded for the Church in Holy Scripture. These apostles were not the high and mighty leaders of Judaism -- they were uneducated, poor, nobodies; but they turned the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as they extended Christ's love to a lost and dying world, nobodies would respond to them and the proud, religious would reject and persecute them. And, nothing has changed today. Why? Because human nature has not changed. Man, since Adam's Fall is still depraved, lost, dead in sin and trespasses, unable to do anything to save himself. But God saves sinners; those who humbly come to Him admitting their sin, confessing it as sin as God sees it, repenting of it and understanding their need of God to save them. They must understand that to trust in anything other than Christ is not true salvation. It's Christ plus nothing. Not, "Yes, I trust Christ for my salvation, but I also have my church, my priest, the sacraments, purgatory...whatever...as a safety net just in case Christ doesn't come through." That's NOT trusting Christ alone!

The book of 1 John gives us tests by which we can distinguish true believers from counterfeit professors. It is essential that Christians are able to make this distinction. As someone who is called by Christ and charged with taking part in the Great Commission, I must evangelize the lost. As someone who has been called to be a part of God's family, the other obligation I have been charged with is to edify the body of Christ, my brothers and sisters in Christ. So there is a two-fold ministry that every true believer has been called to: Evangelization of the lost or unbelievers and edification of the body (believers). We have each been given gifts to edify Christ's body, so each of us contributes in some way to the health of the body so that it can grow, can be protected and can be all that Christ means for her to be in Him. The problem is that there are a lot of people who profess Christ (profess to be believers), but who don't truly know Him. He knows their hearts, because He can see who they truly belong to, but we cannot. We do not treat believers and unbelievers in the same way, so it is crucial to the best of my ability to be able to distinguish them by their fruit. This is a whole other topic, but believers will totally understand what I am talking about.

Unsaved loved ones will say to believers: "Can't we just agree not to talk about religion?" That would be like asking me not to talk about my kids, because I have a love relationship with them and they are a big part of my life. Christ, on the other hand, IS my life, so to not talk about the relationship I have with Him is just not possible. Someone who would ask me not to talk about my life in Christ doesn't really love me nor care about me. Thus, a relationship between a believer and an unbeliever can only ever be superficial at best. Jesus had the same mentality in Matthew 12:48-50. He said, "Who is my mother and who are my brothers?" Then he pointed to his disciples and said, "Behold my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother."

The reality of Scripture is this: there are only two kinds of people on the face of the earth -- those who belong to God and those who belong to Satan. For true believers, God is their Father and other true believers are their family. For unbelievers, Satan is their father and the world is their family. But the world is passing away and all its lusts. My family is eternal. To pretend that I share the same relationship and beliefs as those whose father is Satan is NOT LOVING. It is cruel and devious because it gives them a false assurance that we belong to the same family.

If one of my family members was about to cross a busy street and didn't notice a tractor trailer coming straight toward them, and I didn't call out and warn them, it would be cruel, unloving and have disastrous consequences. I really would have no excuse for my actions because I could clearly see what was coming for my loved one. Yet, how many "Christians" are silent? They refuse to call their "loved" one from the precipice of hell. Most of our family members are dangling over hell by a thin string -- I think Jonathan Edwards described it as a thread of a spider's web in his most famous sermon of all time, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

A rather large part of my family is Catholic, and we do not believe in the same Jesus or the same gospel, as noted in my first post. I do not have any type of regular fellowship with any of them and could probably rightly say that I have burned bridges with most of them. I'm sure they don't want to get too close because my "fanaticism" may rub off or something. But my question to them would be this: I am passionate because I know that what I believe in is the truth. If you are as sure of your beliefs, why haven't you warned me not to cross the street? Why haven't you loved me enough to tell me the truth? Why haven't you followed Jesus (whom you say you worship and follow) in calling lost sinners to repentance and to life eternal?

One reputation that I am sure I have in my town is this: The woman who teaches the Bible who is anti-Catholic. No. I love Catholics! I probably have more Catholics that I love than any other people group. But, I am anti-error because Jesus is truth and He is love and the two cannot be separated.