“Let love and kindness be the motivation behind all that you do.” 1 Corinthians 16:14
There’s a saying I’ve heard for a while… “The Christian army is the only army in the world that shoots its wounded.” This statement may not be 100% accurate if you want to get legalistic… but that is my point!
So much legalistic, self-righteous criticism is “cloaked” in the disguise of “wanting truth to be known”. The art of decimating one another is a skill that has been finely honed in the Body of Christ. There’s no need for an “enemy” because we do an amazing job of criticizing, breaking one another down, and mocking other Believers, ministries and the like. We rejoice in their downfall, rather than coming to a brother in love and seeking restoration – being someone who extends healing.
We are inundated with articles and posts criticizing “performance-based praise and worship” or tearing down a worship leader or songwriter because he writes sub-standard lyrics (although many of his songs have blessed me tremendously)… Or we take delight in “ministries” aimed at exposing all the heresy it finds in other ministries… calling a certain ministry’s praise and worship “hype”… attacking ministers and totally negating the powerful impact his call to prayer has had and will have all because you don’t agree with his theology 100% or say he’s not qualified.
I’m so over that. The enemy does not need to even use unbelievers to divide us because THE BODY causes separation and hurt and pain and bitterness and unforgiveness and division and brokenness upon itself…..and it’s done in the name of righteousness.
While I recognize that there is a place for conviction, repentance and reconciliation – so often my heart is grieved because we’ve replaced those with condemnation, shaming and penance. One has love as it’s motive, the other is driven by bitterness or hate.
I wish I could eradicate every post that comes up in my feed that is negatively motivated, so that I wouldn’t even be tempted to read articles aimed specifically to bring disharmony and disunity. Why do we perpetuate this stuff?? If we see a ministry in the throes of a major crisis, do we pray that as little damage would be done to God’s work, or do we rejoice because they “had it coming”?? What’s our heart???
I’m waiting for the real Body to start truly emulating Love, and demonstrating His attributes. That’s what the broken world is looking for… not self-righteous Pharisees, but real men and women who are not perfect. Ones who love Jesus and are willing to extend that love and healing to others the way it was extended to them… What would our impact be then?
It all starts with Love – capitalized for a reason! From my vantage point, it sure doesn’t look like Christianity is winning this war. Ask yourself: am I building up or trashing someone else or a ministry? Your honest answer tells you which “side” you’re helping…
This world needs a real representation of Jesus.
Are you, am I, ready to be that to this lost and dying world?
