In my last post I talked about the difference between us that the rest of the world. I can see a difference between the world and the main church. It’s deeds. The do’s and don’ts of Christianity are well known in the secular world. They (christians) can point to their actions and say there’s a difference. I’m wondering if perhaps they and I are missing the point of the difference?
I keep coming back to the love thing.
John 13:35 – By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
1 John 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
Anyone else remember the old worship song “We are one in the Spirit?” That song was great.
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love
I feel ashamed to admit it, but I don’t think there’s a difference in me. People obviously don’t know that I’m a Christian by my love. They can see that I’m gay by the way I act, but they can’t tell that I’m a Christian!?! Shouldn’t my faith be such a part of my life that I wear it on my sleeve just like my sexuality? Is it about comfort? Is it easier to tell people I’m gay than to tell them I have faith in Christ? Or is it that showing love is just hard because I’m basically a selfish person?
I don’t think I’m missing the point. I think I know what the difference is (Love). I think I know what I need to do (Love more). But love is hard. I need to get over myself and start loving like I was meant to. Where does this selfishness come from? Is it just “the sinful flesh” or is there more to it? Definitely need to meditate on this a bit.
The Bible clearly teaches that a)love does no harm to a neighbor and b) I have rights but I give up those rights for others to help them and not to hurt them. I can sight incontrovertible evidence that homosexual acts indeed do harm to ones neighbor, both to the sexual partner and innocent third parties. Therefore one cannot call homosexual acts loving acts. That is why God in his infinite wisdom issued proscriptions forbidding homosexual acts. They are certainly harmful. You may have rights, but as Christ, the living God become man, gave up His rights as God to take the just punishment for our sin, so you, if you really love, will give up your “rights” so as not to harm others. If you selfishly pursue your own pleasure while putting yourself and others at risk of serious harm and in a high percentage of cases actually do harm then you are not loving and if you practice this kind of behavior unrepentently you cannot lay claim to any true christianity. You merely have religion. When you follow Christ you have to take up your cross. That means you have to sacrifice your selfish pleasures and begin doing those things that will help others, not hurt them. By the way, there is no such thing as safe sex, certainly not with condoms. Condoms fail at least 10% of the time. So at least one out of every ten times a sex act is engaged in with a condom a sexually transmitted disease may be acquired or transferred. That means one out of every ten times sex with a condom is consummated serious harm can result to oneself or ones partner or both. If I had a revolver with ten chambers and put a bullet in it and spun the magazine and then proceeded to point it at ten of my partners or one partner ten times and pull the trigger each time sooner or later someone is going to get seriously hurt. If i did that you certainly wouldn’t think I was loving would you?
Comment by Rick — February 27, 2009 @ 10:04 PM
Why do you say it’s incontrovertible? I can site “incontrovertible” evidence that being gay doesn’t hurt anyone and isn’t condemned by Christ or the Bible. But I don’t want to get into another argument about this. I’d really like for us to be able to agree to disagree and come to our common fellowship in Christ. So please let’s not get into this. If you want to argue and spread hate then go somewhere else. I’m trying to talk about the difference between the world and true loving Christians and do not want to get into another “is it ok to be gay” discussion. Suffice it to say I think you’re wrong, but I don’t hate you for your belief.
I just want us to recognize that we are all Christ’s brothers and sisters seeking the difference that’s supposed to be there. How that difference manifests in each of us I think is unique to our own circumstances.
So again, I don’t want to turn this is not something crazy, but I want us all to think about where that difference is.
Comment by Drewpy — March 1, 2009 @ 10:11 PM