Making Disciples

I started thinking a little while back about the posts I do on Fridays about my faith, and the Christian faith. I wanted to make something clear, something I feel very strongly about: and that's about how my views relate to you, the reader.
See, I don't know why Christians of many stripes (and maybe especially the vocal ones, ones you see on TV or hear on the radio) feel the need to demand conformity to their opinions by everyone. For those about to turn me off in disgust, hear me out. Because I know The Great Commission says "Go into the world, making disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19 paraphrase). But does it seem like a little too much emphasis is put on "make"? As in "coerce"?

When I present my views of what I read in the Bible, they're my views. I don't have a doctorate in Biblical studies, all I have is James 1:5 and a church pastor -- and I think that's all God wants for me right now. And what I read from the Bible as I study it, as I try to figure out what this Christian life looks like, I know I see some elements of God's Kingdom and His will and His design for life, and I don't live it out. There is still a thing called temptation. So even though I "know" -- head knowledge -- what the right thing is, I am with Paul and every other human being that does what they don't want to do. We tend to jump down people's throats and throw all of their credibility down the drain because they stumble and are suddenly "hypocrites." Maybe they're just sinful like you and me, huh?

But when I say something is my view, that doesn't mean it's my truth, and my truth only, and you're free to interpret the Bible however you choose. That's one of my favorites from people who haven't read the Bible: "Well, that's just how you're interpreting it, right?" I'm sorry folks, but some passages are just clear -- there's no way around them. And when one interpretation jibes with ten other verses, and is contradictory to no verse in the Bible -- the ability to ignore it is constrained a couple of thousand-fold.

And yes, I know people used the Bible to justify slavery. To which I say this: I was on the liberal side of the fence for a long time. And compared to the recent crop of GOP hopefuls, I'm still left of center rather than right. There is no reason for me to read conservative things into the Bible that aren't there. Am I perfect? Of course not; but neither is anyone else. And a person can ignore what the Bible does say because they don't agree with it just as easily as they can force an interpretation because they want it to say that. One of my biggest fears is reading something in that isn't there, and sometimes a principle will seem abundantly clear from a passage, and I can think of other verses backing it up: but I won't commit to it until I've thought about it and approached God and ministers with it.

But folks -- and I mean Christians now -- we cannot expect someone to live under God's law if they don't acknowledge His law. It's that simple. If a person only recognizes civil law, we can't expect or demand they live under anything more than that. If they do, it's only by the grace of God, and we should praise Him for that. So if a person is doing something approved by civil law, but denied by God's law, bring them to God first -- then show them His law.

Because if I tell even a Christian something the Bible says, it is still up to him or her to go to God and ask: "Does this apply to me? Am I not living as I should?" I can't command you to do anything. Everyone -- Christian and not -- will stand before God to be judged. And that's going to be worse than any judging we can do. So let's cut that out. Let's leave it up to God to convict them, and stop taking His job. We are God's messengers only, and we're imperfect at that. Let's not make things worse by putting words in God's mouth. How horrible to come before God and find out that by our loose tongues we led people away from Christ, and He had to get someone else to go out and bring them back.

See you Wednesday.