What is the point of claiming a faith, any faith, if one walks away from that tenets of that faith?
What is the point of claiming a Lord, if one does not follow the way of that Lord?
If we claim to be "Christian" but do not live by the tenets of the faith, especially those of the Christ who is Lord of those who claim the faith, of what good is the claim?
If we worship, praise and tithe to please God, but do not live what Jesus our Lord taught, commanded and modeled for us to live in this part of God's Kingdom, of what good are our efforts to please the God who sent Jesus and His Good News?
Jesus' instruction (often harsh) for correction among the Pharisees, as we have that in the Gospels, shows us that claiming a heritage, claiming a position and claiming to be representatives of the faith mean nothing if folk are unwilling to live what God calls us to live.
Jesus' examples of faithfulness, as we have them in the Gospels, are always folk who exhibited Agape Love and Grace with others around them in how they lived, flying in the face of the Empire values that others around them had adopted as their normative behavior.
One cannot hate (xenophobia, ethnocentrism, racism, classism, religiophobia, homophobia, misogyny, extremist ideologue) in words or actions AND follow Jesus. Hatred from fear, hubris, greed or any other source causes divisions that the Jesus of the Gospels condemned in very strong terms. Jesus instead commanded His followers to love stranger and enemy and help them in life, along with the most vulnerable among us. Jesus stood on the side of the Refugee. Jesus stood with the Laborer. Jesus stood with people of other ethnicities, faiths and genders. Jesus stood with the poor. Jesus powerfully identified with "the least" in a society divided and exploited by empire, and commanded His followers to help them. His basis for salvation (Matthew 25:31-46) is centered in how people of God treat them and thereby treat HIM, according to the Gospel.
Do you call yourself a "Christian"?
Have you read what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled in the Gospels?
Do you strive to live what Jesus, Son of God, Redeemer, Savior and fulfiller of Law and Prophets taught, commanded and modeled in the Gospels?
If not, what's the point?
If so, continue to strive to be the (Agape) Loving and Gracious person Jesus calls you to be in how you live here and now, in THIS PART of God's Kingdom.
With you in Jesus' Way,
Pastor Jamie
People of the Way of Jesus
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