Many things that are attributed to Jesus of Nazareth and to God the Father have no grounding in scripture. Unfortunately, this isn’t anything new but I came across something the other day that really got to me and I think it needs to be addressed.

This upcoming presidential election has been ugly since the primaries and it is only getting worse. As the days, weeks and months go by leading up to the November 6 election, there will be those who will seek to divide us as Americans. They would rather have us squabble over particulars instead of looking at the big picture. These same people know that most people in America claim to have some sort of Christian faith and as such, it is my belief that they will use that as a weapon to turn us against each other, and by each other I mean believers and non-believers alike.

A friend posted this on Facebook from a news article that ran earlier this week:

Wisdom comes from the mouths of babes.

When I first saw this, I just shook my head in disbelief but after thinking about for days on end, I realized that there are probably many people out there that think that God hates them because they are homosexual and they were told that by a Christian. That is a lie and could not be further from the truth. God hates our sins but he doesn’t hate us as people. He loves us and Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of that love. If it were not true, he wouldn’t have offered us ALL a way out so don’t believe that God doesn’t love and want the best for you. Here are some reasons why I say this.

1) God doesn’t hate people, He hates sin.

We’ve all heard the saying before, “hate the sin but not the sinner” but it would seem that some brothers and sisters have forgotten this. A lot of this is based off of certain passages in the book of Leviticus (18:22 and 20:13):

Leviticus 20:13 KJV: (King James Version): “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.”

It’s obvious what the Old Testament has to say about this but I am more interested in what Jesus said or would say about it. Jesus said that he didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Mathew 5:17) so in this case, what would Jesus do? Based off how he handled a similar situation, I think we can make an educated guess.

Jesus didn’t point out people’s individual sins and say one is worse than the other is. In John 8:1-11 we see him calm a situation where a woman caught in the act of adultery was about to be stoned–as the law provided. Jesus showed love and mercy to this woman and simply told her to go and sin no more after challenging a throng of the so called righteous to cast the first stone if they are free from sin. In Romans Paul does the same thing when he addresses believers and tells them to not be so quick to judge others for they themselves will be judged. Read Romans 1, but in particular, verses 24-32 which states:

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
 28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

I know that’s a lot but check out what Paul says right after all of this in Romans 2:

God’s Righteous Judgment
2 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath , when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”[a] 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.

God doesn’t look at our sins as one being worse than the other so if you’re going to start calling people out and attacking them you better be ready to deal with yourself as well. Whenever you point the finger you have, three more coming right back at you. As people we tend to say what sins are worse than others; I do it to. A child murderer is much worse than a thief in my eyes but to God, all sin is abhorrent. If you say you believe in an almighty sovereign God who can do anything, change any person and any situation (and I 100% believe that with every fiber of my being, I am living proof) then why don’t you let him do his job and you worry about yourself?
It is not the job of the believer to change anyone. You couldn’t if you wanted to, you couldn’t change yourself, let alone someone else. The true believer knows that any good that comes from them, any change of heart and soul and mind comes from the cleansing of the spirit, Christ dwelling with in us. That is something only He can do. The light and the salt doesn’t mean the sword and attrition. Our lives are to be the pleasing sacrifice that brings honor and glory this His name.

2) It’s in His hands so stop tripping!

War on the family, war on God, war on the church, war on the culture…the world is at war on all fronts it seems…or so they would have you believe.

How can you wage war on God? Let alone wage a war against God and expect to win!

I know it can suck looking at the world today but seriously, we serve a very mighty God so why the frown? Don’t forget all the things that the Lord has done for his people, written about in scripture and lived in our lives today. We all have a story about how God delivered us from something so remember that. Imagine how the Israelites must have felt with pharaoh’s armies about to crush them. Think about how the early church was ruthlessly hunted down and slaughtered by the Romans. They even crucified Christ thinking that would be the end of it…

How’d that work out for them?

There will always be people trying to undo what God has set in motion, what He has decreed. They are like you and me, people. God exists and is sovereign overall whether one chooses to believe in Him or not. Ultimately, his will is what is being accomplished. Paul told the disciples in Romans 13:1 that:

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

This doesn’t mean that we live by unqualified compliance. In Acts 4:19 we see Paul take a stand for the truth but it is important to note how he did it. He didn’t put up picket signs, call people hateful names and make them hate the name for which we are called. Rather he respected their position knowing that God has allowed them to be where they are and as such obeyed God by respectfully and righteously standing up to authority. Not because it brought him glory or notoriety but because it was the will of the Father.

3) We live in a secular society

Jesus didn’t force anyone to his side and neither should we. As Christians we believe that God set up the institution of marriage to be between a man and woman. Regardless of what laws are passed, that fact doesn’t change. We live in a day and age where homosexual couples can have children and as such, I think that we should do whatever possible to make sure that they have the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. You do not have to agree with the law but the children and loved ones involved should not be shafted out of their legal rights. As long as churches (pastors and church administration) are not forced to go against their doctrines or are free from being sued, then I don’t see why something can’t be worked out. Again, we can call it whatever we like, but God has the ultimate say and he has had it for some time now. No law signed by man will ever trump that, no matter how “enlightened” we think we have become.

I don’t see marriage and gay marriage as being the same thing and I don’t think you need any particular religion to make that point. Marriage is one of the pillars of human cultural evolution and has played a huge role in the growth and development of human history. Thousands of years of relevant history and significant cultural development should not be cast aside as a relic from our past. That doesn’t mean that homosexual couples don’t or shouldn’t have rights for their families as well, but what that does mean is that you don’t have to trample what is already there, established and proven to make your point. It isn’t an issue of how one feels about their significant other; evolution cares little for love, heterosexual or otherwise. Evolution cares about numbers and successfully passing on ones genetic material. The fact is marriage as we know have known it, has helped usher in generation after generation ultimately bringing us to the point we are today. I think that is something special and is worthy of being left as is.

It just seems to me that if we let God do his part and we do ours, things would go a lot smoother. Many things have been done in the name of Jesus over the last 2,000 odd years that are not very Christian and we can never take them back. There are also a lot of really good things that have come from it, so I take issue with people who otherwise seem objective and respectful of others views when they start calling people bigots and hateful. There are some like that yes, but there is plenty of hatred and vitriol to go around, it isn’t something only the Christian community is guilty of.

We can however do something about this going forward. We shouldn’t have to scare people into the arms of our loving savior. By living a Christian life worth imitating, we do far better then we could ever hope to accomplish on our own, but that all starts with us reconnecting with God and his word. It tells us how we are to treat one another, what we are to live our lives by. Who are we to argue with his ways and try to establish His kingdom our way? Just think about that next time you do or say something in the name of Jesus. Ask yourself, am I really being a good witness? Or, am I doing my own will? The answer might just shock you but at the very least I hope it turns us ever towards scripture so that we know for certain what it is we are to do.