Harmless as Doves

            I normally make it a point not to attack anyone, or anyone’s views, or any given religion.  Lately, though, I have become more and more frustrated with people that call themselves Christians who seem to go out of their way to promote a negative view of Christianity.  As an example, there is a “church” in Topeka, Kansas that has made quite a name for itself by picketing funerals.  Another example would be so-called “Christians” that want to tell everybody else how to live, but then when it is pointed out to them that they do the things that tell others not to do, they defend themselves by saying that their sins are covered by the blood of Jesus.  In other words, they believe that once you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior, then it doesn’t matter what you do, because it’s all covered by the blood.  They don’t seem to understand that, if that were true, then the obverse would also be true:  If you haven’t accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, then it really doesn’t matter what you do, because you could never be good enough to make it to Heaven without the blood of Christ applied to your life.  But, they say that the law is made for the lawless …

            I guess I understand why it is that of all the people that Jesus dealt with when He walked the earth, the ones that He had the hardest time dealing with were the Pharisees.  For those of you that don’t know who the Pharisees were, they were the religious leaders of the time.  Did you ever notice that Jesus didn’t generally hang out with religious people?  Oh, granted, Nicodemus came to Him by night, and there was a Pharisee that invited Jesus to dinner once, but, generally, they bad-mouthed Jesus for being “a friend to publicans and sinners.”  Publicans were tax collectors, and, I may be mistaken about this, but it’s my understanding that publicans didn’t have a lot of oversight.  If Joseph the carpenter owed ten shekels in tax, but the publican could persuade (and by persuade I mean browbeat him or threaten him into acquiescence) good old Joe into paying twelve shekels, then the publican could pocket the extra two shekels and no one would be the wiser.  As far as the supervisor was concerned, Joe owed ten, the publican collected ten, ten is what went into the treasury.  From Joe’s perspective, the publican said he owed twelve, so he paid twelve, and, as far as he knew, twelve went into the treasury.  Of course, most people knew about the practice, but nobody knew for sure if they were actually victims.  Clearly, not all publicans defrauded the citizenry:  When Jesus met with Zacchaeus, Zack protested that he never did those things, and that on every occasion that he found that he had accidently overcharged someone on their tax, that he made full restitution according to Mosaic Law.  If Zacchaeus had lied, Jesus would have known, just as He knew the thoughts of the scribes in Matthew 9.

            The bottom line is, John 3:16 says that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.  The Bible also says that we love Him because He first loved us.  It even says that, while we were yet in sin, He gave Himself for us.  I don’t see anywhere where it says to attack people outside the faith.  It isn’t a question of what they are doing wrong (or even what they are doing right, but it never hurts to comment favorably on such to encourage them), because, as long as they are on the outside, it just doesn’t matter.  I don’t see anywhere in the Gospels where Jesus (our perfect example) ever criticized someone outside the faith for living as though they were outside the faith.  I do see where He criticized the religious people for hypocrisy, and occasionally even His own disciples for their lack of faith.  So, there is a standard of living for those of us that claim to be righteous (although most of us never come nearly close enough), but those that do not should simply be encouraged to learn about the love that He has for us, and then encouraged to make a decision to call on His name.  Telling them how wrong they are only serves to push them away, particularly if it is done in a hateful manner.  Telling them how right they can be may just get them interested.  The most important thing is that they know that Jesus loves them, even as they are, but that He wants so much better for them.