more fire

Christ never commanded His followers to organize politically, take up arms, rail at homosexuals, or curse unwed mothers, but that is what many who call themselves Christians have chosen to do. The body of Christ is being co-opted, infected by politics and greed. Politically-motivated Christians are busy patting themselves on the back for being good citizens while Christianity is being perceived as an increasingly hostile and judgmental religion.

Sinners ran to Jesus, but they are running from the church (which is the body of Christ). People are afraid they’ll be judged in church rather than saved. Prostitutes, tax collectors and other sinners were attracted to Jesus, but today many parishioners would rather keep the “filth” out of the church than to let them enter in and be washed by the blood.

Politically-motivated “evangelists” have chosen to mobilize Christians around issues rather than to encourage believers to bleed for people.

In John 8, some of Jesus’s opponents among the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus into speaking against the Law of Moses. They brought Him a woman caught in the act of adultery and asked, “In the law Moses commanded that she should be stoned to death. What do you say?”

Jesus, drawing in the dust, said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” The Pharisees left, being convicted by their own conscience. Jesus looked up and asked the woman, “Where are your accusers.” She told Him they had left. He then said to her, “Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more.”

What these Pharisees failed to understand is that Christ came not to condemn, but to save sinners. Christians are not called to judge those outside the body of Christ, but are called to love and suffer for others so that they might come to the throne of grace and be saved. Christians who have never held the hand of a woman considering abortion, but are quick to vote to criminalize these troubled women should repent because they have just taken sides with the stone-throwing mob of Pharisees rather than with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Many politically-motivated evangelists (and their followers alike) have tried to use the law to justify their own own supposed morality, which is founded, not in God, but in their own will. These “evangelists” are trying to mobilize Christians around issues rather than encouraging believers to bleed for people. These so-called “evangelists” have made a second, inferior image of the body of Christ and that image is deceiving the mass of people who need salvation.

Christians who have never held the hand of a woman considering abortion, but are quick to vote to criminalize these troubled women should repent because they have just taken sides with the stone-throwing mob of Pharisees rather than with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Christians need to have mercy on the unsaved as Christ had mercy on us. Christians need to start living more like Christ than like a Pharisee, a Roman, or an American. We need to identify with Christ before even considering our national, ethnic or economic identity. We need to ask ourselves if we are quicker to bleed for others or quicker to throw stones.

We have been given a Kingdom of God agenda, not a political agenda, and we must let Christ love others through us. We must love the mother as much as the unborn child. A woman considering abortion might not have heard the gospel from a person dependent on the Spirit of God. And if a person, led by the Spirit, would hold the hand of a young woman considering abortion rather than endorse a political strategem that mother might come to know Christ and the baby might have a chance. Christians are not called to rally around pro-life or any other issues. Christians are called to be faithful witnesses and to bring lives to the throne of grace so that souls might be transformed into the image of God. More fire.