Common issues seen fresh through the eyes of Jesus – Introduction

This article is to lay a foundation to explore more deeply the duties of one who follows Christ. There is a difference between believing in Jesus and being filled with His Spirit. Christians must move beyond simply believing in Jesus. Most Christians believe in Jesus up to a point – and that point is the Cross. If most of us are honest, we will probably say that we have not moved past that point by picking up our Cross and following Him.

Many Christians simply have enough Christianity to make them miserable. Just enough Christianity so that they don’t smoke, don’t drink alcohol, don’t have premarital sex, don’t swear, and go to church. They hear about the joy of the Lord but very rarely experience it. I want to clear up some of the issues that can help us see deeper into the richness of God and HHis heart for the world. Hopefully, by doing this, we will be able to move beyond a bunch of rules and regulations and see life through the eyes of Christ himself.

Many churches today have stripped their congregations of the true joy of Christian discipleship by stripping the message of Jesus from its cultural context and converting it into neatly packaged self-help messages. Messages designed to be ‘seeker-friendly’ and to create believers only.

The message of Christ has been distorted and watered down. The message of Christ has become aligned with militarism, legalism, being rich, Zionism, and making scapegoats of the least of society. In the US there is a call to renewal that is reclaiming ground for the true message of Jesus. Armies of young people are rising up and proclaiming “we want to be the living and active body of Jesus here in our world today”. We are seeing this in the New Monastics and other Christian groups across the US. They are literally denying themselves and making conscious decisions to live poorly among the ‘least of society’ so as to be incarnational to them – as Jesus was in Palestine 2000 years ago.

My favourite preacher, Tony Campalo was at a Southern Baptist convention in the US. The Southern Baptists are renowned to be the most hard-lined legalistic Christian group in the country. As he spoke, he said “I know that you are currently debating whether or not the Bible is inerrant. Well, it doesn’t matter if it is or isn’t because your not going to do what it says anyway.” Do we see ourselves in that accusation?

The common theme that will run through these articles is Gods heart for all of mankind, particularly the ‘least of society’. God created all people in His image. Each person has an intrinsic worth and value that is the essence of human life and transcends class, race, religion – even self opinion and actions. But our society has taught us that our worth and value are based on our net worth and value. I.e. how much money we have, or what our degrees are, or our circle of associates, or our position in society (and indeed the church).

The Bible speaks about Gods concern for the least of those in society – those on the margins and the fringes. Gods concern for those who have been forsaken by Governments, big business, and indeed – their own neighbours. Those left behind by national and global economic growth. Those who live without quality of life, without dignity, and without hope for tomorrow. Those who struggling each day just to survive. They are living in a way that was never intended and a way that breaks Gods heart.

Meanwhile many of us in the Body of Christ – the church – live lavish lives. We spend our time building our empires. Spending on our fancy clothes. Our luxurious houses. We treat Jesus teaching that “You will always have the poor among you…” as an excuse not to heavily invest in the poor. Are we so blind not to see what Jesus was saying? He was not saying that as an excuse to turn our hand away from the poor, but was instead talking about the social positioning of the disciples. Don’t forget where Jesus was eating. He was in the house of Simon the Leper – the lowest person in Society in Jesus day. Jesus was telling his disciples that because of they are – because of your mandate – you will always have the poor among you. In other words, you will always be around the poor. (Note – I am not against home ownership. Indeed, I believe that for government to provide a path to home ownership for ever person is a key in combating poverty).

The scriptural basis for these articles comes from the prophet Micah who says:

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8).

In the upcoming months, I will hopefully post a series of articles which will take a different look at some of the life issues that we have esteemed as particularly important in our Christian walk. However, I will take a different slant on these issues. I will attempt to look at them through the lens of Christ. Jesus was very straightforward in what he said about certain issues – and the reasons for these can be found throughout the old and new testament. Remember that before the world, Christ was. Here is my disclaimer: I am not educated by Theological Seminary. As much as I can, I want to look at the words and the life of Christ and use that as the lens through which we view some of these issues. I will leave the "meanings" and "interpretations" to the scholars, and we will just take Jesus at His word. I also admit that I am far from living to the standards of Christ - but I know that I am loved and forgiven. He gives us the grace to walk with Him. He will never leave or forsake me. I just ask that I can be internally honest about my motives and worship and follow Christ in truth.

The first issue that I will look at is that of sexual purity. I will look at this through the lens of Christ and His heart for the poor and needy. I believe that once Christian males (and non-Christians for that matter) get this into their hearts, they will no longer take pleasure in pornography or sexual promiscuity.