When I was a young person I had a very low opinion of religion and religious people. They looked at me like I was vermin and I glared right back at them and even knocked one preacher off the crate he was standing on while street preaching in the French Quarter when he told me I was going to Hell.
Church people seemed very condescending, judgmental, and hypocritical to me, as though they thought they were better than everyone else. When I read of Jesus in the Bible much to my surprise I saw that He was full of compassion for people, especially sinners and the down trodden. He wasn’t condescending at all in my mind, rather full of love and a desire to help. The Bible talks about the scribes and Pharisees as being one of the earliest examples of folks who exhibited such hypocritical behavior.
By far, of all the preachers and prophets who are mentioned in the Bible, they didn’t condemn hypocrisy near as much as Jesus, who had the most to say about hypocrites. He didn’t mince any words on the subject, but directly confronted the religious hypocrites of His day (the scribes and Pharisees), they hated Him intensely for it and they were the ones that had our Lord and Savior arrested and demanded that He be crucified.
Jesus called them self-righteous, judgmental, and intolerant. They railed about the slightest infractions common people made against God’s laws while walking about with their noses in the air like they were better than everyone else. In Romans 2:1 the Bible states: “You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?”
I received the first nasty e-mail about my book yesterday.
“I bought this book through Amazon. How can I get my money back? I’ve
read 15 pages and regret buying it. If I wanted to read filth and garbage I would just go buy some. Most Christians do not appreciate filthy language and situations. Maybe he’s a smart man – but not smart enough to recognize that drug addicts and losers are not going to read a 470 page book – so that leaves maybe Christians who want to read an
uplifting story. They won’t get that either. I read my Bible this
morning and then this mess and somehow the two just don’t go together.”
Hmmm… I don’t mind her objections to the bad language. I don’t like it either and detested writing it that manner, but after much prayer decided that it was necessary to write the book as it really was on the streets in order to depict the reality of a non-Christian who at one point had evil dripping from his fingertips who through Christ made the transition away from that wicked lifestyle.
Right or wrong I felt that reality was preferable to sugar coating it in order to add credibility to the book, so that those who need it the most, the unsaved, could find hope, (and make no mistake about it that is the group of people for whom the book is written).
I don’t mind criticism; if I did I would have quit writing WFTD years ago. Someone cannot write daily about something as controversial as one person’s interpretation of the Bible for 11 years without having varying opinions. What I resent is this lady referring to people as “losers” and inferring that they are subhuman and too stupid to read a 470 page book. Actually this “drug addict loser” became a Christian by reading a book more than twice as long as my autobiography, the Bible, (my study Bible is 1095 pages long).
In the verse in Romans listed above one of the most important points is: “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?”
Let me tell you my friends, God loves every person on this planet. We are to emulate Him. There is nothing wrong with hating the sin, but we should love the sinner. If God is willing to forgive someone their sins, who are we to judge them and condemn them.
If you choose to call yourself a Christian, then you should represent Him in being a wonderfully kind, tolerant, patient and loving person and not some finger pointing, stone throwing hypocrite who pretends to have no sin in their life, including their own hypocrisy of thinking they are any better than someone else. In God’s holy and righteous eyes we are ALL sinners worthy of being eternally separated from God. It was the mercy of that wonderfully kind Savior‘s blood that saves us from ourselves…
James 3:17
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. (James 3:17)