Today I have been reflecting on Mark 7. Jesus is "having a little chat" (insert the voice of Heidi Klum from Project Runway right before she tells the contestants that she is going to have a discussion with the judges that will seal their fate)- ok Jesus is having a little chat with the Pharisees. This time they are upset that his disciples are eating food with unclean hands, that is unwashed hands. This bothers them a lot.
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
Then Jesus says (my paraphrase) "You guys have a fine way of setting God's commandments aside by using your human tradition. For example the law says that you're supposed to honor your mother and father by taking care of their needs. But instead of actually taking care of them you're saying whatever you would've given them is Corban, a gift dedicated to the temple, and so you are getting out of actually caring for them. Thus you nullify the word of God by your traditions that you've decided you'd rather follow instead. And you do this sort of thing a lot."Then he says: "Don't you get it? Are you really that slow? It's not this religious stuff that makes you holy or not- like whether or not you ceremonially wash your hands. It's the stuff from the inside that defiles you.
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
So when I look at how the church has valued this list of sins, here's what I SEE:
“What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—SEXUAL IMMORALITY, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. And then under the heading of sexual immorality you can add HOMOSEXUALITY.
That's my friends, what your stance on abortion and homosexuality looks like to me. Poor, sweet Christians like that couple from Fixer Upper are making the national news- not for donating a lot of stuff to help start an affordable grocery store in a food desert with Mission Waco, but for taking a stance against homosexuality as a sin...
Now when I read the Bible, I pretty much think that Jesus sums up ALL of the commandments in one word: LOVE.
So there are all these people who I know to be truly kindhearted folks. They genuinely want to do what the Bible says. But instead of focusing their efforts on things like the Bible actually talks about, like feeding the poor, for example, SO MUCH attention is on the false emphasis on doctrines hashed out by various sects throughout the years- and then this obsession with gays.
Jesus said stuff pretty plainly. It's doesn't take very long to figure out how to be a Christian if you read what he says. But then you get into the Epistles. Oh the apostle Paul- how I love you, but how you give so much conflicting doctrine for people to split hairs over! Well Paul wants us all to be Calvinists. No some of Paul and other disciples think we should be Armenian. And now with this dogma and doctrine, debated throughout church history by councils and various religious thinkers like Augustine and Calvin, Christians have so much to sit comfortably steeped in religious tradition of man with that they have forgotten how to be actual Christians.
Let's take my situation for example. It is no secret that my family is pretty poor right now. There's a lot of stuff we need. People in the church know this. Now EVERYONE knows this, It is Christmas time, the time where people are focused on charity and being like Christ. So far ONE person has offered to actually bring my family food. I don't know what people who have read the Bible and have seen Jesus' commands are busying themselves with, but it is not feeding my hungry family. THIS IS WHY I"M NOT GOING TO CHURCH!
Whatever other religious dedication (Corban) I see Christians doing is not actually of much help to me or my family. Some days I just get tired of it.
Rather than actually expending the energy to LOVE people of different faiths, Christians are very concerned about them spending an eternity in Hell. But not SO concerned that this is a major focus of their life- like actively presenting them with any message that would show them God's love in hopes that they would not go to Hell. NO- we can condemn Muslims and the REST OF THE BILLIONS OF PEOPLE in the world quite comfortably from the safety of our doctrinal truth. If you are a Calvinist how do you live with yourself? I was a missionary reading a book by John Piper (who evangelicals LOVE) and his Calvinism was literally keeping me awake at night.
I think the Christian message would be a LOT more popular if large bulks of Christians would spend a lot more time just doing the simple acts of LOVING others in TANGIBLE ways rather than spending SO MUCH time trying to live out some doctrine taught by men in buildings. So much time is spent IN church, DOing "church," that not much time is spend actually BEing church. And the world is hurting for it. And it is no wonder they reject that gospel.
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