Hi,
I ran across this website online and it really was sad to see this. My dad was and is the cleanest/straightest Christian I know, raised me the way the Bible led him to do. He didn’t get saved until he was 25. Before God dealt with him and showed him he was a sinner on his way to hell, he was a major cusser, drinker and smoker. I have never known “that man”. I have never once heard him even say gosh or golly, never once saw him even think about drinking or smoking. He did a 180 when he got saved. Yes it was hard living as straight as he had us to live, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. When God dealt with my heart at the age of 9, I accepted Christ as my Savior. Once I became older and started “testing the waters”, the Holy Spirit would convict me of what I was doing, wearing or saying. Getting back to my dad. I would MUCH rather have a straight laced Christian dad than the one I would have had, if he hadn’t gotten saved. If a person can do the things of the world, wear the things of the world etc…and there is no Holy Spirit convicting them on the inside, then maybe they need to check up on if they are really saved. I do not say thus in an ugly way but from the heart.
Sister, go back and read what Jesus has to say about the two greatest commandments in Matthew 22:34-40. Not only does Jesus place top.priority on love, not just for God but also for people, he says “On these commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”. Meaning any thi g else we can do to please God is absolutely dependent on not just loving God, but lo ing a neighbor (which Jesus explained in the parable of the Good Samaritan is anyone we cross paths with). Without love, even if we manage the acts, they are worthless and even serve to drive people away (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). In fact Jesus says that many will do many great deeds in his name but will not make it to heaven because they lacked the love to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, tend the sick, and yes, even minister to those “sinners” in prison. As we do to them, we do to him, and if we don’t have or know love, we don’t know God. There are multiple scriptures that back this up, but space is limited.
The dirty secret that IFB churches forget is that we are ALL sinners. Beggars on the doorstep of God’s absolutely amazing grace. Grace that by definition is not, cannot be earn3d by our works/acts. That those things instead are a response to His grace. He also tells us that if we can’t love rh3 flesh and blood human being in front of us who we can see, then we are incapable of loving God, whom we can’t see (1 John 4:19-21). God is much less concerned with someone having a beer (so long as you aren’t a drunkard) – He himself oth created wine from water and drank wine as well – or perhaps a salty word escaping tbeir lips than he is about do they have love both for Him and for humanity. It is the inescapable overriding theme of the entire Bible.
If you’re wondering what it looks like to love someone, start in 1 Cor. 13:4-11. The way oflove is literally spiritual maturity lived out.
You may hear this, or you may scoff at it. I only know that eventually the Spirit grabs hold of our hearts and confronts us with love. Both his for us and out lack of it for others. And it will happen to you as it will to everyone else. I only hope that when it does you can look beyond Pharisaic legalism and see God in his wondrous, loving glory, and shape your life as a response to such a miracle.
I appreciate both the OP and the response… it is fascinating. The bulk of the IFB churches discussed here seem to have decided to measure spirituality by people’s actions, and this is a kind of legalism… the kind that obsesses about keeping every detail of the law, and refining the laws beyond what God has said. However, many of the people who claim to be in the recovering group seem to have forgotten about the first of the “greatest commandment” ==> that we should love God. If ye love me, keep My commandments, He said. While it is clear that some have been abused, there are certainly rebels who use their churches standards as an excuse to drink excessively and live however they wish to live. It is themselves they are pleasing; they don’t want to hear anyone talk about responsibility to live a godly life. God’s grace is not for us to live however we wish, but to live righteously and soberly and Godly. We should be denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, but I read and hear of many people who claim that they now live “under grace” and rejoice in the worldly lusts they now enjoy.
Yes, we should love people; they are not to be stepping stones to make us appear important. Far too many churches sin after the manner of David and just want to number their number of salvation decisions or baptisms, but they don’t want to be a friend and help them to grow in Christ. Yet the so-called “Great Commission” includes working with people to grow and teach them. I’ve been in churches where numbers ruled everything, and generally, the people lacked any spiritual depth. They would work all day Saturday visiting a bus route, and be on the bus for most of the day Sunday, but they couldn’t be bothered to really study God’s word – they were too busy keeping the “hype” going.