Live and Let Live ...

How far should a Christian go to build bridges with non-believers, or even with those who believe differently about Christ than we might? Are we casting our pearls before swine, or offering that which is holy to dogs? Are we not to be standard bearers for our King to weed out the tares from the wheat? Where does compromise with the world become acceptable within our faith and where does following Christ even to our deaths enter in? Some in the Christian Community want to live and let live; others seem bent on enforcing their own views of the gospel. Can either be correct if Christ is truly leading?

This is the quintessential question that every Christian must wrestle with and find an answer to … once I know the truth, should I not warn others about what I know? Every instinct of our being screams yes – we must shout it from the mountain tops, proclaim it in the streets, and in so doing “the truth will makes us free”. But before the yelling commences, it may be worth a quick examination. Let’s call it prep work. First, before we set about to proclaim our “truth” it would be a good idea to substantiate where our idea of truth came from. Was this a personal revelation, somehow divinely inspired only between you and God? It may have been. I find God talks to me through music, lyrics, the council of my elders, my parent’s advice, my children’s advice, my pastor, and even through nature. God is speaking to us much more often than we are generally tuned in to listen.

If this new discovery of truth came from a highly personal revelation between God and you it might be a good idea to take it to the body for further evaluation. Having other members / believers of like mind examine a new truth may help mold it a bit, add character to it, enrich it, and make it deeper than you first imagined. And if perhaps your revelation may have been in error (well-meaning Christians sometimes misinterpret what God desires by accident, it does happen), then you have safety check in place before the proclamation starts.

If your idea of truth comes from a long line of tradition, perhaps the accepted doctrines of your particular church, I would submit it needs even more review than a personal miraculous revelation from God to you. Let’s face it, we often take for granted what our church says on a topic with little to no real personal study to validate these truths. We assume other “great” Christian minds have already done the study and we can rely on “their” findings. Thus people adopt entire value systems with little to no personal study designed to validate, enrich, or mature the basic truths they inherit from church traditions and teachings. This is sad. And logic dictates that there are too many Christian churches with a wide variety of teachings for ALL of them to be right based simply on history. While it may seem like a “waste of time” to restudy that which we have traditionally assumed to be correct – the truth is, study of scriptures is NEVER a waste of time.

Before reviewing any proposed truth, whether new or old, one must be willing to be wrong. This is the hardest concept for Christians to accept. They become so sure of themselves, that it becomes nearly impossible to be wrong and coincidentally nearly impossible to teach anything new to. One of the least effective witnesses in the world is one who is so convinced they are right, that there could be no room for error, no margins for mistakes. The mind locks up tight as a drum, and all the logic, counter arguments, common sense, and unfortunately Holy Spirit’s guidance does NO good at all. A cemented mind is one that cannot admit error even in the slightest, and is therefore un-teachable and un-reachable. Our humility must overtake our certainty in order for us to be led by God and His guiding Spirit. We are not ready to lead, if we are not ready to follow.

Next we need to take a minute and focus on the timing of a revelation of truth to us. Chances are, when Christ is truly leading, we are being led to His truth, in His time, in His manner. This is a critical part of the growth process for us as Christians, and as individuals in the faith. But remember how HIGHLY personal this is. My earlier analogy of the truth about tithing makes a good example of this. The truth about the process, benefits, and reasons behind tithing may be absolutes from God. (notice the use of the word “may” be) But when this truth is brought to my attention is extraordinarily important. It may take me a while to become ready to receive it. When my Christianity first begins, I may be focused on another sin entirely that I am looking for freedom from. All the while, I ignore the fact that Scrooge has nothing on me in the greed category. Others may see this character deficiency in me very clearly, but I do not see it in myself. Not perhaps, because I do not want to see it, but perhaps because I am absorbed with fighting another more dangerous sin, say chemical addictions. God may have to work with me for a long time before my mind is ready to see how selfish and greedy I truly am with my money. When I am ready, His truth is revealed.

But what would have happened if in my earliest of Christian experiences, if everyone who saw in me ALL of the deficiencies I clearly had, dumped them ALL in my lap at the same time and said fix it. My defense mechanisms would have kicked into overdrive, and I may have rejected truths, simply because I was not READY to hear them. Nor would I appreciate this type of forced intervention. Chances are, I would have been the pig who turned and tried to trample you underfoot for your efforts to “save me.” But if you kept silent on my errors, and allowed me to discover them in His time, and in His way (which may include me seeing you live differently without ever saying a word on the topic, or perhaps if I directly asked you a question on the subject) – then the results may have been different. Timing is everything. It is a truism that should be considered in the process of salvation.

For you see salvation, and the revelation of truth, are indeed processes – not instant gratifications. We are not made perfect in a snap, nor are we made omnipotent in a second. Our wisdom comes from our dependence, not our accomplishments. Our strength is developed in our need, not in our vain attempts at control. We must begin to see that we are on a road of our salvation. The road is long, sometimes narrow, and seemingly difficult to follow. But in Christ it is well lit, and easy to take on, so long as He drives and does all the work. We should just get in the back seat and play with our toys while daddy drives us home. It’s good being a kid. Or rather, it’s good being His child. It frees us from the worry of the journey and allows us to focus on the destination (perfection inside and out).

Christians, like our Master Christ, do not have to endorse sin or accept sin or participate in sin to love a sinner. We can pray that someone who suffers will find an end to their suffering, for ALL of us are the suffering ones. While we may recognize sins in others, it is not our function to try to remove them. It just makes the pigs and dogs (also us by the way) very mad, and very vengeful. But we can point out to the hurting where they can find relief. We can by example live lives without the burden of our former addictions and slavery to evil, sin, and its pain. We can become beacons of light and liberation, rather than dark clouds of condemnation, eager to focus on sin, and reluctant to remember our mission is one of redemption. It is not a compromise with evil, to allow the suffering to find relief as Christ leads. That is trusting in Christ. It is not forsaking our duty to allow someone to think differently than we do about a truth, until they are READY to hear it from God in His way. Our duty is NOT to spread truth, it is to spread LOVE. Only the Holy Spirit can convict of truth, and only when we let Him do it.

We must learn to segregate our roles from the role of our Lord. He is our savior, we save no-one. We point the suffering to their healer, we do not attempt to heal on our own. We try to exemplify His love and when our lives of love lure others, we point them to the source of ALL love. We do not need to become evil to witness to evil. We do not need to adopt philosophies we know to be in error in order to witness to the erring. This is not logical. If anything our lives MUST be our living witness that there is a better way. If our lives do not SHOW a better way, then our talking about it is nothing more than fairy tale to those who take time to listen. It is in living our gospel that we become the gospel to others. It is then that our words carry weight. It is the realization that only Christ could affect this change in us, that will become a nagging question to those who do not have a Christ in their lives.

Our Bible presents a standard for how to love and what love is. It is embodied in the law and the prophets, and revealed in the personage and life of Christ. Christ alone is fit to bear any standards to be followed. We have already ALL fallen short. There is no sense in trying to exclude other sinners from the source of relief from sin because they are MORE infected than we are. First of all, our measuring ability to determine how much sin someone else suffers from is a wholly lacking skill set. We are really bad at it. Second, it makes no difference how infected with evil a person is, the cure works on EVERYONE, but in a highly unique way and timing.

Christ, our example, did not come to build walls between the truth and the world, but rather to break down all the barriers we had put up. He did not participate in our sins, but had great pity and compassion on our fallen souls. He redeemed us in spite of our unworthiness and loved us constantly and incessantly. The dogs and pigs of Matthew chapter 7 have too long been thought of as others, when in reality they were us. I am the pig. I am the dog. I am the one who rejected the holy, and tried to trample the well-meaning servants of God. Just as you did, and as you do – every time we reject the truth He wishes to lead us to. Our pride has made us the pigs and dogs, rebuked in His council. But our humility can relieve us from this condition. Through our surrender of the will to Christ, we can let go the resistant nature we have long fostered, and become the compliant children He needs us to be. We can jump in the back seat and start sharing our toys and our affections with each other in the innocence of our childhoods reborn, rather than trying to grab the wheel, jam on the brakes, and crash the car in the ditch on the road of our salvation. I would rather be a child freed to love, than an adult burdened by failure and doomed to repeat it. Our lives alone must be our witness whether they point to our Lord, or away from Him.