Monday, August 13, 2018

Emptying the Church - Part 2

Tuesday, August 14, 2018
And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.  And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved.  This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him—speaking of these things in all of his letters.  Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.  You already know these things, dear friends.  So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing.  Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  2 Peter 3:14-18 (NLT)
Peter, a fisherman by trade, turned Apostle by Jesus, was quick to say it is hard to understand some things his brother Apostle, Paul wrote.  And, truthfully, some of Paul’s writings do spill into the gray area when seen against the backdrop of 21st century culture.  Two thousand years makes for a huge communication gap.
So, it seems like every time someone has a new thought about Scripture, Scripture gets a new interpretation.  That is particularly true when we sin, and try to rationalize our rebelliousness towards God.  For validation of this human trait we don’t need to plow through the whole Bible; simply check out the Garden of Eden.  When Adam and Eve sinned by taking forbidden fruit they were embarrassed and made clothes to hide their nakedness.  That showed a sense of shame.  But when God came looking for his rebellious children one cool summer’s eve, they also hid from him; they inherently understood their sinfulness and wanted no part of a face-to-face with their Creator.  And when the accounting finally came, Adam shifted the blame to Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent.  The fact at hand is, we humans never want to acknowledge our sins.
Peter also pointed to the fact that part of the distorting smoke screen we try to raise to cover our sin-tracks is to twist Scripture’s meaning to give us some wiggle-room.  The current culture’s controversy over homosexuality is a vivid image of this posturing and attempts (by the unstable and ignorant) to redefine moral behavior.  Proponents of throwing the door wide-open in this area do so by twisting Scripture to fit what they want, rather than obey what God has said!
A simple illustration is a common argument I’ve been handed as a pastor.  The question is posed:  Pastor…it’s not really clear…do I tithe on my gross salary, or the net?  Now, while that sounds like a pretty serious Christian who just wants to get it right, it’s more like Adam and Eve hiding from their sin while God is calling; it’s more a delaying tactic than an honest question.  If we can claim just the slightest bit of ambiguity about Scripture we’ve got a foothold to stand our ground to do nothing at all.  We can just be praying about the whole thing until God reveals it all.  But, can we talk?  How much clearer does the Bible have to be than the tithe is holy unto the LORD?[2]  And the real problem, as Peter wrote about the destructive path of twisting scripture, is that we are not really providing a foothold upon which we can stand and buy time while we find another reason to do (or not do) something about our rebellion; what we’ve really done is given a foothold to the enemy – a wedge Satan can use to destroy our relationship with holy God.
So, while Paul may be hard to understand sometimes, it makes little sense to let our questions make sin seem affordable.  In many ways this is what is happening to the church in today’s culture.  Doubt, questioning, and half-hearted living of the Christian life provide a sorry witness for those both on the inside or outside of the church.  It leads to destruction.
For You Today
God is all about accountability with His creation.  Sooner or later He is going to come walking (and looking for us) in the cool of the evening, just like He came looking for the first couple.  The question is will he find an empty church, while we’re all out sewing fig leaves to cover our tracks?
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com
[2] See Leviticus 27 and Malachi 3

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