Loving our Neighbor

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14 

This a continuing theme in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. We are to love our neighbor. But what does that mean? How can we love our neighbor? What does this look like?

Sometimes, when we love our neighbor, we think that means we would let them do whatever they want. This almost ties in with nonresistance if you don't look carefully; but it doesn't, not quite. Instead, we need to realize that sometimes when we love, we have to be honest and even confrontational. Both love and nonresistance are not about avoiding confrontation, but instead doing so in a kind and gentle way. It is much like running a business. If we see some random employee at someone else's company not doing their job or behaving in a nonprofessional manner, we tend to shrug it off as not our problem. But if that was our employee we would be concerned about addressing the situation. Avoiding the problem is not helping the person, addressing is. In the same way, in our interactions with people, we need to address situations without being self-serving or 'holier than thou.' This is a challenging situation. It would actually be much easier if loving our neighbor meant ignoring them, but we cannot do so. Nor should we even desire such a thing. We love ourselves, yet we do not tolerate sloth or evil just because of that. No, we tend to be less lenient with ourselves. I do not mean we should be condemning, not at all. Instead, I am merely suggesting that we should confront in order to help.

"How do we confront without condemning?" you may ask. Well, honestly sometimes confronting is condemning. Sin is wrong and we can't wish that away. However, we need to make sure that the person we are helping is actually being helped by our input. Prayer is vital in these situations, as in all of our Christian existence. We also need to be able to admit that we too are flawed humans who have to go to God for help. We cannot act like we can solve or 'fix' other people; we cannot. Instead, we should lead them to the only source of help we really have - God Himself. So in loving we do confront and sometimes even condemn, but it should always be for the benefit of the person we are interacting with, not for our own.

But what about people who don't want our help? What about those who take offense to any correction at all? This is a tricky situation. We are to help, and that can mean to speak up. That being said, sometimes people have wounds in their past, spiritual or emotional, that they have not addressed. These wounds may even be half-forgotten, visages of a dark time in their past. These types of people, Christians and otherwise, can be very hurt when corrected. It often has little to do with the current situation, but they may lash out at the very person trying to help. Wounded people wound others, the saying goes, and it is quite true. The hurt person may not be able to see or admit that they are hurt, but they are. So what do we do?

We pray. This type of situation cannot be solved by our attempts at helping. No, this is a problem that can and should be brought to the very Person who created them. Very little can be done by mere humans to fix such things. God, the great Physician, can and does heal such wounds, but it is not our place to try to speed things up by creating our own 'home remedies'. We can and should keep these precious brothers and sisters in prayer, but we should remember not to become condescending in our relationship with them. We too have had wounds like these, and it is only by God's grace that we can work through them. So remember, love is also patient.

In the end, loving our neighbor isn't really about ourselves, emotion, confrontation, or even our neighbor. It is about God. His will and provision for us all. If we keep our focus on Him and not just our imaginations of Him, we can indeed love our neighbor.

Favorites and Flaws

This Christmas I got a new Bible. It is quite beautiful, with leather binding and room on each page to keep notes. I soon started transferring some of my notes on my favorite verses to my new Bible and that got me to thinking, "Is it really a good idea to transfer these notes? Am I just cutting and pasting my old thoughts, and by that ignoring the rest of the passages?"

I think this is a fair question. We all have our favorite verse, chapter or book of the Bible. We go to them frequently when we need a bit of regularity or to strengthen our conviction on a particular point. However, if we focus too much on what we have already extracted from the verse and build only on our own interpretation or understanding of the passage, we run into the danger of merely creating a man or self centered doctrine. This happens far too frequently in my personal life, I fear.

So how can we avoid this type of problem? Well, one thing that I have started is that I never write in my Bible with ink. This is because my thoughts change, situations change, and also to remind myself that though I may have thoughts and opinions, they are not on par with Scripture. I'm not condemning writing in one's Bible with pen, not at all, but it is just one of those little things I do personally to help remind myself that God is God and I am not.

Another thing that I am trying to work on is reading more than just my preference into my reading. We often come at Scripture with the assumption of what it should say, not what it does say. Being human, this is something we all struggle with. Realizing that we do so is one of the first steps to correcting bias and understanding the message behind what we are reading.

So am I going to copy all my notes into my Bible? I don't know, however, I do know there are some things that I will copy, not just for preference, hopefully, but because these are passages and notes that are relevant to what I teach and speak. In the end, we can do with this what we are to do with all our concerns: we bring it to God  in prayer.

Duck Disaster

My online life has been invaded this past two weeks by the Phil Roberts/Duck Dynasty controversy. For those who don't know, Phil Roberts is a star on the 'reality' show Duck Dynasty, which in turn, is about the company by the same name and the family who runs it. They are conservative Christians who are all about "guns and God." Recently, the father was interviewed by a magazine and gave a short, firm anti-gay statement. He was then pulled from the show and now everyone is up in arms saying his right to religion and free speech was taken away. But was it?

Well, does he have the right to make anti-gay comments? Yes, and he did. He is allowed to, but seeing as his show is owned by a liberal gay-friendly company, they do not agree with him. They do not have to either. So they run into an impasse. He will not back down so they fire him. This is not an attack on religion or free speech, but instead, they do not want to be associated with such ideas as 'gay is wrong'. They did not say Phil couldn't say that, they just said he couldn't work for them then. If a conservative church had an employee, like a pastor, who suddenly said something that was against the grain of the church, like Jesus is just another of many gods, then the church would have the right to fire him, on the grounds that he was misrepresenting their beliefs.

Phil Roberts does not represent what A&E wants to represent. Therefore, they are allowed to let him go. He was not persecuted, nor was he threatened. Phil is allowed to preach all the time on his off time, in other words when he does not represent A&E. But as their spokesperson, they do not want him to be 'anti-gay'.

Personally, I think that A&E are fully in their rights to fire/suspend Phil. Not that I agree with A&E, but I believe they have the right to choose who represents them, just as Christians have the right to choose who represents us as well.

Here's another question: Is Phil being an accurate representation of Christ? This is not one I will try to answer with a simple yes or no. But we need to realize this: being gay is not the sin that condemns people, being a sinner is what condemns them. (see this post for more on our Christian reaction to gay people) What I mean is this, if all the gay people in the world were suddenly "not gay" (if that is possible) tomorrow, it would not grant them all salvation. Salvation is through Jesus, not through being straight. I believe some well-meaning Christians have the idea that being gay is somehow more wrong than being unfaithful as a straight person, married or not. But I do not believe that God views it that way. God tells us that He views lust as adultery and anger as murder. If we draw an imaginary line of 'bad sin' and say that being gay is the 'bad sin' all we are doing is condemning without helping. That is the most unChristlike thing we can do. In the end, pray for your enemy, and love them. That is what we are called to do.

Ice and Storms

This past week, we suffered a massive ice storm. The trees in the area were covered with ice, power went out, and vehicles were covered. Many trees were damaged, and some were even destroyed. The sheer weight of the ice did its work quite effectivly. There is a massive tree in the back yard of the school that was split down the middle and uprooted by the weight of the ice on it. It got me to thinking about our own Christian life and how we are compared to trees.

As you may know, trees that are shallowly rooted often don't stand up to the weather well. We hear about this all the time. But in an area like the one where we live, there are trees everywhere. These trees don't all need deep roots because their roots mix and the sheer density of the forest saves them from most of the damage of the wind. This is very much like our Christian walk. Groups of Christians can indeed lean on each other and thereby stand against trials and temptations in many situations.

But what about sudden terrible things in our Christian life? Death, serious injury, trauma, or some other disaster? These are more like an ice storm than a windy day. Although wind is common and trees grouped together can weather the storm as a group, iced trees must each bear their own weight. They must rely on their own roots too keep them standing. They may loose branches, or they may fall entirely. They may crack, like the tree in our back yard. Other trees cannot help in this situation, only the roots that the tree has already put down. By the time the ice starts to form it is too late to start worrying about their roots. What has grown has grown and whatever is there is all that is there.

In the same way, some temptations and trials we go through are things that other Christians can help us bear, like windy days for trees. However, there are problems and trials that no other person can help us with. These situations are something that we can bring to God and Him alone. The roots we have in Him are what matter at these times. These roots need to be put down before the ice and storms come. If we wait until they are already there it may be too late. Let us lay our roots now, while we have time.

Colored Christianity

I recently covered the concept that there is more than one absolute "correct righteousness." In viewing morality we often fall into a mode of judgment that views everything as black, white, or somewhere in between.

However, seeing that God has each of His children at different places in their spiritual walk, we often find it difficult to see the 'color' of someone else's faith, if you will. We would like to point to a place on the picture above and say, "this is how pure your faith is." We would like to easily judge spiritual life of another and give an exact judgement, then move on in our faith to see what else we can find to classify and judge.

However, there are two key flaws in this approach. First, we find that morality is not really a greyscale pattern that goes from black to white with some grey in between. Instead, we find that it is more like a color wheel, where it is not always easy to see if your yellow is as close to the white center as my blue.

We find that it can be much more difficult than a simple black and white judgement, but we find that God, and by extension morality, is far more complex then what we first assume or perhaps desire it to be. And in desiring the simplicity of judgement on our peers and their lives, we run into the second major flaw in greyscale morality: Love, or more accurately, the profound lack thereof once we find ourselves so enamored with judging other people's spiritual state.

"Wait a minute," you may be saying, "Are we not told to judge the fruit of others in the Sermon on the Mount?" Indeed, we are told to judge. But we are told to judge the works of these people on the basis of being good or bad, not the level of goodness or level of badness. Our flesh so often creeps in and want to be the best at whatever we are doing. This can apply to our spiritual walk far to easily as well; we want to be the most holy, or most wise, or ironically, the most humble. We go to great lengths to judge others walk with God in order to lift our own up. This is a struggle that happens daily, and we are called to daily deny ourselves, and put that part of us to death.

So wether you are on the blue side working up and to the right, or on the red side working toward the left, we need to remember that our position, and even the position of others is not the focus. The focus is to be Christ, the perfect center. If we keep our focus there, we are bound to improve. If we focus instead on others and their errors, we will only try to correct their mistakes in our lives. It may be that someone in the green area needs to go further down on the 'color scale of holiness' but if the person in the purple sees this and tries to correct themselves by what they feel the green needs, they will end up further away rather than closer to the center. We cannot easily correct others, nor is it often our job; this belongs to the Holy Spirit.

The point I am heading toward is simply this - If we try to judge other's spiritual walk by where we are, we will fail. We cannot easily see other's place. Often we cannot comprehend why others do what they do, but we judge them anyways. We are to judge the fruit of a person by its good or bad state; we are not supposed to rank the taste of each fruit to our own liking for then our personal bias has far more of an effect than actual morality does. If we each strive to become purer and more like Christ each day and see that others are doing the same, that is be best fruit we can ever wish for.

Faith: Attacking and Defending

In Christianity, we find there are a lot of different opinions and factions. I'm not going to list my personal convictions on any of them in this post, nor look at the 'why' or 'what' of what we defend in our faith, but rather take a look at the 'how'.

We see there are basically three types of defenses for our beliefs. The frightened pacifist, who doesn't defend what he believes because he doesn't know or doesn't think he knows enough to defend what he believes. These are usually weak Christians, either for lack of discipline/conviction or personal conflict in their own lives. These people can also be they type who believe everything is right or no one can know or condemn.

Next, we have the all out assault. This is typically what we would call a Fundamentalist approach. They believe everything is vital, nothing can be disagreed upon, and if we disagree, one of us is a heretic. Now, it is very true that some things are essentials to the Christian faith; however, not all of our personal convictions are things that others are forced to follow. We find that these people are dissenters and quarrelers. They are usually very willing to argue a point, but will refuse to listen to anyone else's ideas or beliefs. These are, sadly enough, often the loudest voices in Christianity. They condemn all who disagree with them and are a poor example of Christ. They are the very ones Paul was talking about when he said that we are to have nothing to do with these types of people. (2 Timothy 3:2-5) These people often sway other weak or fearful Christians with their powerful arguments and reasoning. Often it is done through fear, as those who follow said 'leader' are afraid of condemnation from that person. So they jump through the proverbial hoops to win the accolades of their ideological leader. This type of person is quick to condemn, often being very verbal with their convictions and will have lots of verses (often out of context) to support their stance. This is by far the most damaging example of Christianity.

Lastly, we also have the true examples of Christ. This is a hard path to stay on. It requires us to be in fellowship with God, in prayer about not only our convictions, but how to share these convictions. These are to be solid pillars of the Church, not condemning for the sake of condemning; but leading with love. These people will often have an answer for the Assault-type Christian, but need to be in prayer about wether or not this will actually help. They are to bear the burden of the weak (Romans 15), they are to do so in love (I Peter 4, I Cor. 13), and they are to correct false teaching (Gal. 5).

That's a lot of work. What can we do with this? How can we ever balance love, bearing burdens, and also exposing those who are wrong? The first thing we need to do is turn our attention away from them, and toward Christ. Then, after our priorities are in line with Christ, (more complex and time consuming than it sounds, in fact it takes all of our very existance) we turn our focus on ourselves. This focus on ourselves is not to please ourselves, but to purify ourselves through Christ. After that,  we are to help others. Remember, we are not to correct or argue for our own selves, but to further Christ and to help those who are in error. Its not about destroying other peoples arguments, being the smartest person in the room, or even making sure people know we are right or not ignorant. We are not to defend ourselves, but strive to help others become more like Christ.

In conclusion, we often see ourselves falling into one of the first two groups, either lax or attacking. When this happens, we need to turn our focus back on Christ, in fellowship and prayer, then work on the log in our own eye before worrying about the splinter in our neighbors.

The End of Thanksgiving

This last weekend an new animated holiday movie came out titled "Free Birds." Its a whimsical movie about turkeys and the first Thanksgiving. Although the movie was supposed to be about Thanksgiving, there was no actual giving of thanks other than a five second bit about Governor Bradford thanking the time traveling turkeys for pizza. (I'll wait while you reread that to make sure you got it right)

So what can we draw from this? Well, it is blatant re-writing of Thanksgiving in pop culture. It has been the recent habit of the media to ignore Thanksgiving in favor of Black Friday, but this is the first time that we are told the Thanksgiving story with the intent to leave God and the God-fearing men and women out of the story. In fact, the settlers may look like Puritans and Separatists, but they act like anything but Godly people in the movie. Yes, historically there were many settlers who were not Pilgrims - many of the settlers were greedy businessmen - but they didn't have the traditional clothing of those we like to call "Pilgrims".

So what we see is the acceptance, or more the preaching, of an originally godless Thanksgiving. There is no mention of being thankful, instead the entire movie consists of the "Pilgrims" complaining. Now, it being a movie about time-traveling turkeys, one has to take things with a rather massive grain of salt, but the fact is that they go out of their way to portray Thanksgiving as just time with family. Not time to count our blessings or thank God for them, but just to be with our family. Of course, family time is wonderful, but there is more to Thanksgiving than that.

Personally, I would rather have Thanksgiving dropped as a National Holiday than have it re-written in this way. I think we as Christians should still celebrate Thanksgiving, but in actual giving of thanks, not just a turkey and some stuffing.

But back to "Free Birds". I'm not saying we need to condemn the movie itself. This is of little use and makes no sense to those who don't see why this bothers us. Instead, we need to focus on what we are to do as Christians, which is to shine as a light for God. If we take our time to be truly thankful, and to give God thanks, we are fulfilling part of our requirement as Christians. We cannot change people by condemning things when they don't agree with our convictions; instead we need to show them God by love and obedience to God's command. Let us be a light of Thanksgiving this year. Let us show the world that we have been with Jesus.