There was a time in my life that I was accused of "beating the saints" As I have looked back over the years, I would have to say that there is truth in that statement. It is necessary to point out that truth that is proclaimed without Love is often abuse. The Lord says, "Vengence is mine." He did not say, "vengence is yours." To tell someone the truth without love is often abusive. You might say, "I know...I know....we should love everyone and part of loving others is telling them the truth." This is not entirely true. To love people is to tell them the truth IN LOVE. Sometimes telling someone the "truth" without loves pushes them further from "the truth." If you tell me something that is extremely difficult for me to hear, I am going to resist unless I know that it is difficult for you to tell me because it hurts you and you feel my pain. A TRUTH shared by a person who is hurting because they love enough that it HURTS them to cause the person pain who needs to hear the truth generates conviction and change. True love is always sacrificial. When Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves, he was telling us to put others in the place that we would normally reserve for ourselves. He was telling us to put ourselves in the perspective of the other person as much as is possible. Imagine hearing what you are about to tell them. Would it hurt you to be in their place. Feel their pain. If you can't, don't tell them. Let someone who can feel their pain tell them.. The lie we have come to believe is that truth is always good and we are to proclaim it NO MATTER WHAT. This lie has led to many running the opposite direction --further away from God. The greatest commandment from God is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. I believe that revival will come to many of our lives when we pray that we will sincerely love others MORE than ourselves.
Following after truth (accepting the truth and being changed by it) does not come naturally to us. If it is not pleasant to embrace truth, some other factor must come into play in order for people to embrace truth. Otherwise, we push people away before truth has an impact on them. What motivates people to change? Simply love. 1 Corinthians 13 talks about the necessity/greatness of love. You can have all other "good" things but without love, we are NOTHING. Truth doesn't change people, love does. We often "beat" people with truth. We beat our children with truth, we beat our friends with truth, we often beat people we don't even know with "the truth." And then we wonder why they don't respond. Jonah was a prime example of declaring truth without love. We focus on his "whale" and forget what comes after. He finally went to Ninevah and declared that they were sinners (he idenified their sins) and announced the judgement of God is coming. After he did this, he was feeling really good about himself and was dependent on God to assure his "reputation" remained intact by bringing the judgement that God has instructed Jonah to proclaim. When the king and people repented, God averted his wrath and God did not bring judgement on Ninevah. Jonah was upset about this and the book of Jonah concludes with him pouting in the desert. Does he sound like a "God's Representative (present day Christian) that you'd want to spend time with? NO....you'd want him to stay out in the desert away from you.
Truth is often our weapon of choice. It's blade is sharper than any other weapon. There is no defense against it. When it is weilded without love, it cuts us asunder and leaves us to bleed to death without any healing balm. As a result, it becomes natural for people to stay off the "battlefield." That is why churches are often near empty. People are afraid to come in and "get cut up."
The loss of ground that has happened in our country and world over the past 50 years (although it has been there in one or the other much longer) is the fact that truth has not prevailed. The reason that truth has lost a footing in this world is because truth requires the soil of love for it to take root.
A group of people I work with asked me last week what I thought about homosexuality. I told them what I think does not matter. I can almost feel the spiritual hairs standing up on the back of some of those who are reading this. You are ready to say "Amen" and for the gavel to fall when I tell them what God says. What I told them may surprise you. I told them that asking me what I think about homosexuality is really a veiled way of asking me to judge those who are practicing a homosexual lifestyle. I know what God says to me about my own life, and he told me to "get the board out of my own eye before I even can look at someone else." I discovered something.....there is always, no matter how many boards I remove......there is always another board in my eye. I never reach a position where I can pick up and "throw the stone." Some of you may think I am avoiding the topic. So be it. I am not avoiding the topic, many of my friends practice homosexuality. I love them dearly. Many of them are Christians who know Christ. I am merely suggesting that I have my own life to tend to in regard to my relationship with God. Some reading this may say, "We must renounce sin." I would agree. I need to continue to renounce all MY sins. When you have renounced all of your sins and gained complete victory over them and reach a place where love is your motivation for telling others the truth, THEN you'll be able to renounce the sins of others. Just make sure you understand their pain before you do. Make sure you LOVE them before you do. If not, you've just added another "plank to your own eye" that must be removed again. The point I am making is for all of us who know Christ to live for God and point others to establishing a relationship with HIM and leave the conviction of various sins, whatever they may be....to the conviction that comes from God. Everyone has their own hierarchy of sin. I've noticed that people's hierarchy usually does not include the sins that THEY are committing.
I've heard many people over time criticize Joel Osteen. I remember I used to listen to his father every Sunday night after I got home from preaching at the church I served. I remember when Joel was out "living in the world" and his father would ask the congregation to pray for him. I remember when he started preaching at the Lakewood Church. I've listened to many of his messages since then. He is often criticized for "not preaching against sin." The love of God which woos a person into a relationshp with Christ also provides the ground for truth to grow. Let us be careful about criticizing those who "prepare the ground." Without preparation, truth cannot take root. Truth, when it does take root, brings personal conviction of sin. When conviction is personal, the remembered pain of making a change in life often helps others do the same.
If I am ever a pastor again, I will certainly do it differently. I've beat up many people over the years with the truth. It was often my weapon and not a bridge to God in Christ. Truth is dangerous in the wrong hands. If it is not tempered with the Love of God, it destroys more people than anything else.
I'll close this blog with this truth:
Remember, IF there is any difference between you and anyone else, that difference is Jesus. There is no one reading this who has not committed some act of sin today. There are things each of us should have done that we did not do and there are also things that we have thought or done that we should not have done TODAY. The only difference in any of us is Jesus. If you know Him, there is never a reason to renounce anything or anyone else. Our focus should be to live for Him and encourage others to do the same.
"If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself." -Jesus (John 12:32)
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