How are we in the body of Christ to love, accept, and forgive one another? Just as God in Christ has loved, accepted, and forgiven us! Seeing this, I recognized that this is a law of human nature. Whether we realize it or not, we will treat other people with the same measure of love, acceptance, and forgiveness that we (rightly or wrongly) think we are receiving from God. We will never love one another with a higher degree of love than we think we are receiving from God. In other words, if I think that God likes me when I’m good but is hammering me when I’m bad, how do you think I’ll treat you? Exactly the same way!
I don’t think I’ve ever met a Christian who, sometime in his life, didn’t ask the question, “Why don’t we find more love in the church?” To me it has become a simple answer. “The reason that there’s not more love in the church is because of a lack of understanding of God’s love in the church.” Religious people can become so mean because (in their own minds) they’re serving a mean God. That’s why aggressively defending the message of God’s grace against legalism is not just nitpicking the Scriptures. Our concept of God’s love and grace is an issue that affects every area of our lives, especially our relationships.
If you call yourself a Christian, you owe it to yourself to read Classic Christianity. Outside of the Bible itself, no book has affected my outlook like this one since Mere Christianity.
Dear Bob,
Interesting observations. They preach a mean God because they think the God they serve is mean.
Jesus was really supposed to clear all of that up. As if God said, "If you want to know what I am really like...look at Jesus."
Somehow...through the ages, not matter how the church has bungled. God seems to pull their chestnuts out of the fire and use them for the good of mankind anyway.
I would have given up a long time ago.
Reminds me of the story of the young man and the old priest. The young was asking the priest why things seemed to happen as they do.
The old priest said, "I know two things for sure in life...There is a God, and I am not Him."
Blessings
Posted by: Susan Browne at November 10, 2005 10:16 PM
That is terrific. What is weird, is that Bob George is the pastor of my church in Dallas ... and while I agree that people should read Classic Christianiy ... I guess its been long enough since I read it - cuz I don't remember that part.
That was really good.
Posted by: trent - GraceHead.com at November 13, 2005 10:32 PM