I’m closing in on writing Words for the Day for 16 years now and that experience has enabled me to reliably predict when a tiny percentage of readers will squawk when I write about something that does not fit into their personal dogma. It is like hoisting a lightning rod in the middle of a thunder storm.
Yesterday I wrote about the controversial subject of the gifts of the Spirit and as expected some lady (after quoting Scripture taken out of context) piously declared, “I pray you will seek out some expert teachers on the issue. A plane with a compass 1% off will miss its destination by a great distance. I see the inward turn of the signs and wonders movements, the more spiritual than thou attitudes and the dividing of the body. It is self-edification as Paul taught, rather than the build-up of the Body that he taught.”
I took the bait and wrote back, “We are trying to unite Christians and not divide them. You are entitled to your doctrine and so am I. I’ve studied the Bible for 42 years and have read every translation cover to cover multiple times and will never understand it all.” I do understand however that Jesus desired that we be unified.
Ephesians 4:11-13 – It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Jesus did not want us to argue points like this or condemn people or judge people. How does this lady know that these folks have “a holier than thou” attitude and that they want to edify themselves”? Maybe some do, but declaring that anyone who believes differently than her is doing it for her stated reasons is ridiculous.
In fact I asked her just that, “How do you know they are doing it for show? Can you read their hearts? Do you have supernatural abilities? Are you a God of discernment of motives?”
Isn’t she guilty of self-edification herself by condemning people she doesn’t even know and attributing to them undesirable attributes such as “self-edification”?
This reminds me of a time when I was a homeless drug addict non-Christian criminal and was walking through Jackson Square, (a park where street people hung out) in New Orleans. A street preacher was standing on a crate and preaching away and I hardly paid him any attention as I walked by him.
Suddenly he pointed his grubby little finger at me and angrily yelled: “If you don’t change your ways, you’re going to hell!”
I looked around and saw that indeed he was talking to me. I walked over to him and hit him as hard as I could right in that big mouth and knocked him off his box. He was sprawled out on his back holding his bloody mouth and I pulled out my .357 magnum revolver and put it right between his frightened eyes and furiously told him through gritted teeth, “If you ever say that to me again I’ll kill you – I might go to hell all right, but it will be right after you!” I very nearly killed that man that day and indeed he was exceedingly lucky to survive because he came within a tiny amount more pressure on the trigger of meeting the Father!
Now that guy didn’t know anything about me. I could have been a street preacher myself, or a born again Christian of the highest order working undercover as a street cop, or just a hippie who loved the Lord, but he looked at my shabby clothes and long hair and judged me.
God said that we look at the outward appearance, but He looks at the heart. We don’t have the ability to look inside someone’s heart, so we should stay out of the judgment business particularly of people whom we’ve never met.
It doesn’t matter if he was wrong or right about me going to hell if I didn’t change my ways, my point is that he didn’t know my heart. And this lady doesn’t know the heart of anyone who is speaking in tongues, attempting to lay hands on and heal someone, prophesy, or whatever.
Had that preacher said, “Hey man you look like you got something on your mind, can I get you a cup of coffee?” or maybe “Hey buddy you look hungry, let’s walk across the street and let me buy you a cup of red beans and rice” or how about, “You look like you are going through some tough times, can I help you somehow, or maybe pray for you?
Had he done that, most assuredly there would have been a different outcome. But by condemning me without so much as knowing my name, all that guy did was drive another antireligious nail a little deeper in the coffin of my soul and nearly get himself killed and put himself in a coffin in the process.
I told the lady who wrote me that she is just a sinner like the rest of us and to give it a rest. I said, “Don’t use your knowledge of the Bible as a weapon”.
Maybe the “gifts of the Spirit” dogma is not for her, but some of the most dedicated and Godly people that I know who’ve worked fulltime in ministries and as missionaries for decades, (often at great risk to their personal safety and indeed very lives), believe in the gifts of the Spirit and have seen them work miraculously in their lives and the lives of others.
If you can’t bring yourself to believe that the Holy Spirit is still using those gifts to reach people all over the world today as He sees a need, then fine, but keep your mouth shut and don’t condemn these tremendous servants of God for something that you’ve never personally experienced, or are convinced is not Scriptural and of which you know nothing about.
This type of judgmental hypocritical attitude is driving people away from Jesus in droves. Unfortunately when people hear junk like this they associate it with all of Christianity.
It reminds me of the Pharisees of Jesus’s day, they had had some 613 laws that they declared all had to be obeyed to the letter. Jesus called them out for making “impossible demands” on the people. It was they who arrested Jesus and ultimately were successful in having Him Crucified.
They didn’t represent God, they needed Him and so do we.
We are losing our culture because we are not unified. There are far more believers at this point in time than non-believers, but one would never know it by viewing what is happening to our culture. We need to unite in the love of Christ in order to turn things around. We cannot unite and be successful unless (and until) we demonstrate the love, compassion, and merciful attitude of Jesus Christ. We will never get there by being judgmental.
Psalm 133:1
How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!
April 8, 2014 – Click here to listen