Thumper the Rabbit's mom agrees, adding, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all."
Yet, if you were to ask the unchurched world what it thinks of the church, most people would say that the church is condemning, judgmental, and rude.
If that's how we come across, it makes me wonder...are we doing it right?
Because Jesus didn't come across that way. Jesus was known as the "friend of sinners," not the finger-shaking judge. Jesus focused on attracting people to God, rather than condemning them. In John 3 (NIV), Nichodemus sought the Master out for a secret meeting because he knew his interest in Jesus would be scorned by his fellow religious leaders. He asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus answered:
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
Jesus was talking about an incident in Israel's history (Numbers 21) where venomous serpents swarmed the camp of wandering Hebrews, biting and killing many. They attributed this plague to God's punishing them for grumbling. This is fitting, because it underscores that when we grumble, we poison ourselves. The solution Moses presented was to make a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole. Everyone who looked to the metal snake for healing was miraculously cured. Jesus referenced this odd occurence as an allegory. Just as healing came to the Israelites by attracting their attention away from the grumbling and pain, to focus instead on the source of their healing, Jesus himself would be lifted up as a source of healing. In John 12:32, Jesus would reinforce this approach of attracting people to him by saying, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
Instead of focusing on the negative, Jesus says, "Look at me!" Instead of condemning, Jesus offers hope. Again, in John 3, the narrator picks up the theme from Jesus' words to Nicodemus.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Clearly, Jesus is not about condemning the world, but about saving it. This is his mission. And this ought to be what the church is about.
Unfortunately, the church has all too often been about shaking its finger and sometimes shaking its fist at the world, condemning a culture that doesn't follow the church's way. This doesn't make sense, because how can we expect a world that isn't a part of the church to follow the way of Jesus? That's like condemning a cat for not acting more like a dog. Instead, the church ought to be inspiring dogs to act like better dogs. Maybe that kind of gentle attraction will one day make cats say, "Can you show me how to be a better cat, too?"
So, I ask, "What if the church were more attractive and less condeming?" How would it change the way we operate among fellow believers? How would it change the way we relate to people we view as "outside the faith?" I believe if we shift and become more like Jesus in this matter, the spirit of the church would change entirely, and more people would be drawn to Christ.
3 comments:
I today find churches are too accepting of sin and don’t speak the truth. The WORD will change a heart. i am not saying that you are wrong in what you right but I have gone to too many friendly seeker churches and they don’t say sin is wrong. Good followers of God now think it is ok to sin because they are forgiven. Well, we are to take up the cross and follow HIM. I don’t know about what you are writing and I know you are a man of God, just confused. The flashing lights in church the dark atmosphere, everything goes. The church the temple should show reverence to God, it is not a social club, yet today we are too afraid to speak the truth. The church is for the followers of Jesus to know how to follow HIM. Speak the church, bring up sin...when I got saved I did not have any idea what sin was, lost and confused and sadly no preacher...that I went to, knew the Bible. So lost, I love reading your blogs, but please explain to me what you wrote. We are not of this world, did i misunderstand you. God hates sin and so should we. Not hate the person but hate the sin.
"Something about my grandchildren," thank you for your comment. I appreciate your concern for my confusion. My concern is that the church has been confused for far too long about the proper approach to "sinners." We have condemned the world instead of embracing it, and in doing so we have brought about the decline of the church in the west. Jesus'approach was never one of condemning sinners, but of telling then that he doesn't condemn them. Yes, he challenged them to live a better life, but he did not condemn them. His condemnation fell instead on the heads of fundamentalists who believed that everybody needed to follow their particular code of moral and ritual perfectionism. They strained out gnats, Jesus said, but swallowed a camel, neglecting the weightier matters like love and social justice.
I'm not saying that the church needs to neglect the truth about sin. What I am saying is that the church needs to shake fingers and fists less, and embrace people more. It's our job to bring people to Jesus. It's the Holy Spirit's job, not mine, to convict people of sin. Seeker churches don't minor on the truth; they major on love. By doing so they retain an audience that they would otherwise lose by being judgmental.
I guess what I'm saying is that we should see people first, and not sin first. "Love the sinner, hate the sin" has two fallacies. First, it defines folks as sinners, rather than children of God who have a sin problem. Second, it presumes that we should be in the business of hating other people's sin. I'd rather listen to Jesus's injunction to get the plank out of my own eye before I try to remove the speck from my neighbor's eye. I'm too busy hating my own sin to focus on judging others. When I show them how much I hate their sin, I run the danger of making people mistakenly think I hate THEM instead.
"something about my grandchildren," your name tells me that you and I have something on common, as my kids have given me a handful of grandchildren. When I see the church's decline among the younger generation, I have to look at the factors that have led to that generation's low church attendance. For the sake of my grandbabies, I want to see the church get this right. Because if we don't, there won't be much of a church left for our grandchildren to enjoy.
As Greg’s wife I can attest to him not being confused, if fact it’s the opposite, he’s quite clear on what Jesus says... we are to LOVE others and let God do the judging. If we welcome people in as they are there is a better chance of them being open to God’s still small voice and to following him. I will deal with my sins and not worry about the sins of others.
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