Recently I have viewed several articles on things the Church should stop doing or saying. I have read them and for the most part I agree. We live in a rather negative world and so I wondered, what is the positive spin on those articles?
I have read study after study about the church of today and found something disturbing; the church is waning rather than waxing. What does this statement infer? The church is losing membership and, most importantly, the church is not changing the world. It appears we have become so self-centered and egotistical that we are extinguishing the light of the Gospel rather than carrying that Light to the nations. (I will, throughout this article use the church and The Church to denote those who say they are Christians and those who actually are.)
I know many of you will say, "Well that is exactly what the Bible predicts! The Bible says that in the last days we, (the church), will be persecuted. Just read Romans 1!" I agree that Romans 1 paints a very dismal picture of the world around us, but we so often stick with our modern day dissection of scripture. When written by Paul, Romans wasn't broken down by chapter and verse. It is essential that we read the entire book as one letter. If we stop with Romans 1:32 and do not continue on to 2:1-16:27 we are getting only a small fragment of the letter. In essence we are taking a few verses out of the context of the entire document. (Gee, sounds like a political ad!) I urge you to read the entire book of Romans, putting aside any preconceived notions. Go ahead, give it a try before reading further in this post.
Now taking all this into consideration, I want to take you on a journey of the very words of Yeshua (Jesus). After all, He is our example and our Savior and He was The Word made flesh. If we follow any words or directions, let it be from Him first. All the matters I am addressing come straight from His mouth. I will start with the sermon on the mount beginning in Matthew 5, but let me give you a hint about Yeshua's words in this passage; nowhere in this discourse does He tell anyone what to believe, but instead He tells us what to do. Please keep that in mind as we look at what The Church should be doing.
The Church should:
1. Become poor in spirit. We need to rely less on ourselves and more on God, putting the outside world's needs above our own. We are so busy gratifying our spiritual obesity while the world is dying of spiritual malnutrition.
2. Mourn: Yearn for God and His kingdom rather than the things of the world. Mourn any and all separation, of ourselves and the creation, from God.
3. Become meek: Psalm 37:11 - Humble ourselves, as we live in subjugation and are trodden down by a government that does not seek God and His ways. Think about the Jews of Yeshua's day. They were living under Roman rule. As Christians in the USA, we are subjugated to our own version of Rome, the United Sates of America's rule and government. God has allowed that government for a reason.
4. Hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God: The Messiah. We hunger and thirst for Him by deeply submerging ourselves in His Word as we yearn for the reversal of social and moral injustices.
5. Be compassionate: Measure for measure - Hebrew idiom meaning that God will judge us based on the way we judge others so ALWAYS judge favorably. (Matthew 7:2) In the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) Yeshua said His followers will:
Feed the hungry
Give water to the thirsty
Welcome strangers and see to their needs
Clothe those who are naked or have only rags
Visit the sick and imprisoned
All of these have a literal and figurative meaning. We cannot tell people about our God if they have physical needs which are not being addressed. A starving person does not have the strength to listen until they receive food and water. Figuratively they imply sharing the Gospel of Yeshua with: those who are searching (hungry or thirsty) for Him, those who have never heard of Him (the stranger), those who are vulnerable to or have been ravaged by the world (naked and sick), and those who are reaping the consequences of life without Him (imprisoned).
6. Pure in heart (mind): Psalm 24:3-4 people of integrity. People who do not harbor deceit, unforgiveness, malice or immorality. Meditates on God's Word, continuously! Loving and forgiving those who treat us badly, including family and former friends who have wronged us.
7. Seekers of Peace: Psalm 34:14 People who not only pursue peace with their enemies, but also pursue peace between others.
8. Anticipate persecution: which will come for those who seek to be all of the above as well as for our attachment to the Messiah. We are persecuted for living a life that brings light into a dark world, yet we are to NEVER persecute those who are in darkness.
9. Salt: The balance to all the evil, wrong and wicked of the world. We are to be involved in the repairing of the world. Salt cannot lose it's saltiness unless it is mixed with other substances and becomes less concentrated. We must follow the teachings of God, responding to the world with grace.
10. Light: We should be conspicuously obvious to the world by our deeds [good works - Hebrew idiom for fulfilling the commands (connections) of the Torah]. Saying we have faith (a relationship with God) yet never connecting with the Torah is useless, which is hiding our lamp under a bowl.
The Sermon on the Mount discourse continues through chapter 7. Often we stop at 5:16, but again I remind you that there were no chapter and verse divisions until a few hundred years ago. This discourse contains a tremendous amount of scripture which is quoted often by Christians and non-Christians, although many times out of context. Further in chapter 5, Yeshua elaborates on the words of Moses. Verses 38-48 truly define in greater detail what appears later in the sheep and goats parable.
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor (Lev 19:18) and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those cursing you, do good to those hating you, and pray for those insulting you and persecuting you, so that you become sons of your Father in the heavens. Because He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those loving you, what reward have you? Are the tax collectors not doing the same too? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Are the tax collectors not doing so too? Therefore, be striving for perfection in order to be like your Father in the heavens is perfect."
He continues on to say in Chapter 7:21-27:
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Master, Master,' shall enter into the reign of the heavens, but he who is doing the desire of My Father in the heavens. Many shall say to Me in that day, 'Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and done many mighty works in Your Name?' And then I shall declare to them, 'I never knew you, depart from Me, you who are Torahless. (Psalm 6:8 Most English translations will say lawlessness, but in Hebrew the word is literally not obeying the Torah or living without the Torah)
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, AND DOES THEM, shall be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
"And everyone who hears these words of Mine, AND DOES NOT DO THEM, shall be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall."
James, the brother of Yeshua says this in his book Chapter 1:22-27:
"And become doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what he was like.
"But he that looked into the perfect Torah, that of freedom, and continues in it, not becoming a hearer that forgets, but a doer of work, this one shall be blessed in his doing of the Torah. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is worthless. Clean and undefiled religion before the Elohim and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."
There are those in The Church who are carrying out these instructions, but what about all those who say they are a part of The Church and aren't? Their words are speaking so loudly, the world hears the noise and is covering their ears while shutting their eyes to avoid them. Paul himself said in I Corinthians 13:
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of messengers (angels), but do not have love (compassion, mercy, kindness and forgiveness), I have become as a sounding brass or a clanging gong."
Imagine a child who is beating on pots and pans with a spoon. We can only take that noise for so long and then we "go off the deep end." Is this what the church has become, a clanging gong and a miserable noise?
I watch the social media feeds where people I know are passing around, for lack of a better term, propaganda. They are anti-immigrants, anti-government handouts, anti-government, and anti- lots of things. My thought is, then what are you doing about those situations? I found a cartoon that adequately depicts the sad state of the church these days. I will quote from it:
"America should get back to Biblical Christian principles!"
"So we should feed and shelter the poor?"
"NO! I'm not paying for a lazy person!"
"So, we should visit and comfort prisoners?"
"No, they don't deserve that."
"So we should pay our taxes without complaining?"
"No, that's MY money and I want it."
"So, we should show love and mercy freely?"
"No, that has to be earned."
"So, we should avoid violence?"
"No, we have to take out the 'bad guys.' "
"So, we should be gracious to foreigners?"
"No, they shouldn't be here."
"So, we should seek to end social injustice throughout the world?"
"No, that's not our problem."
"Then what principles are you talking about?"
What could and would happen in the USA if Christians began to do what Yeshua asked of them? What if we were the ones feeding the hungry and giving water to the thirsty both literally and figuratively? What if we were the ones giving strangers (foreigners) a home among us? What if we were the ones providing clothes and a sanctuary for those who have been ravaged by the world? What if we took the Light in a loving, merciful manner to those who were reaping the consequences of their own actions?
We complain about welfare recipients, being ripped off by corporations, and fearing for our safety. Are these things happening, because the church hasn't fulfilled its obligations? When those who are called by God's Name fail to do what He commands, the world suffers.
Let us, the True Church, begin to do more and speak less. Let's stop judging and remember that we were once deep in sin as well. Let's remind ourselves that we do not know the other person's entire story. Let's stop complaining about the state of affairs and begin reaching out with a hand to those in need. If we will do the things God asks of us we could possibly see the return of the Messiah very, very soon.
Shalom.
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