Photo Credit: What Christians Want To Know www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com
Editor's Note: This post was first published in July 2019 and revised for republication July 2021.
The divisions in this nation seem to be getting deeper under the influence of the disgraced former President and his cultic followers, Many Christians have become enablers and participants by taking scripture out of context, sometimes attributing things that are not scripture to the Bible, and by looking the other way at things that are completely outside scripture, and against the teachings of Jesus Christ. When we do those things, we are doing more harm than good and often we alienate those we are supposed to be drawing to Christ who said that we are to love everyone and hate no one.
Matthew 5:43-48 NLT 43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your •enemy. 44 But I say, love your •enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your •friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
It's time for Christians to stop pointing fingers and trying to justify things that are not from or of God. It's time to activate the fruit of the spirit that was deposited into every Christian at the time they were saved. It’s time for reconciliation not justification. It’s time for reconciliation not accusation. It’s time for reconciliation through love not justification of hate. It’s time to build bridges and not walls.
2 Corinthians 5:16-20 MSG Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.(emphasis mine).
God has restored our relationship with Him through Christ. So we should be about restoring our relationships with each other. To do that we have to work for reconciliation not restoration. We may never be able to completely repair the divide that has been created but we can reestablish the relationships that existed before.
Reconciliation means reestablishing the relationship. It doesn't mean making it exactly as it was before it was damaged or broken. It doesn't mean resolving every disagreement because that's not going to happen. What you can do is disagree without being disagreeable. That's the wise thing, the mature thing, the Jesus thing.
We can have unity without uniformity. We can walk hand in hand together without agreeing completely. If you focus on restoration, you won't get bogged down with small petty stuff. The emphasis will be on the relationship not the issue.
There’s a lot of conflict in the world. It’s filled with wars, division, arguments, prejudice, racism, terrorism, and partisanism. And as a result, we have broken relationships. We have a broken economy. We have a broken government. We have broken marriages. And we have broken lives and broken hearts.
Jesus has made Christians His ambassadors to reconcile mankind to Him and to each other.
2 Corinthians 5:20 NIV We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
As Jesus' ambassadors we have a ministry of reconciliation. It’s our job to go out in society and say as Rick Warren said; “God’s done everything to put you back in fellowship with him. He’s already paid for all your sins. You don’t have to be his enemy. He’s not mad at you. He’s mad about you. Be reconciled to God. Be at peace with God. Then spread that peace with everybody else.”
In a world and nation filled with conflict and division be a bridge builder, not a wall builder. Look for ways to bring people together rather than tear them apart.
The divisions in this nation seem to be getting deeper under the influence of the disgraced former President and his cultic followers, Many Christians have become enablers and participants by taking scripture out of context, sometimes attributing things that are not scripture to the Bible, and by looking the other way at things that are completely outside scripture, and against the teachings of Jesus Christ. When we do those things, we are doing more harm than good and often we alienate those we are supposed to be drawing to Christ who said that we are to love everyone and hate no one.
Matthew 5:43-48 NLT 43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your •enemy. 44 But I say, love your •enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your •friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
It's time for Christians to stop pointing fingers and trying to justify things that are not from or of God. It's time to activate the fruit of the spirit that was deposited into every Christian at the time they were saved. It’s time for reconciliation not justification. It’s time for reconciliation not accusation. It’s time for reconciliation through love not justification of hate. It’s time to build bridges and not walls.
2 Corinthians 5:16-20 MSG Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.(emphasis mine).
God has restored our relationship with Him through Christ. So we should be about restoring our relationships with each other. To do that we have to work for reconciliation not restoration. We may never be able to completely repair the divide that has been created but we can reestablish the relationships that existed before.
Reconciliation means reestablishing the relationship. It doesn't mean making it exactly as it was before it was damaged or broken. It doesn't mean resolving every disagreement because that's not going to happen. What you can do is disagree without being disagreeable. That's the wise thing, the mature thing, the Jesus thing.
We can have unity without uniformity. We can walk hand in hand together without agreeing completely. If you focus on restoration, you won't get bogged down with small petty stuff. The emphasis will be on the relationship not the issue.
There’s a lot of conflict in the world. It’s filled with wars, division, arguments, prejudice, racism, terrorism, and partisanism. And as a result, we have broken relationships. We have a broken economy. We have a broken government. We have broken marriages. And we have broken lives and broken hearts.
Jesus has made Christians His ambassadors to reconcile mankind to Him and to each other.
2 Corinthians 5:20 NIV We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
As Jesus' ambassadors we have a ministry of reconciliation. It’s our job to go out in society and say as Rick Warren said; “God’s done everything to put you back in fellowship with him. He’s already paid for all your sins. You don’t have to be his enemy. He’s not mad at you. He’s mad about you. Be reconciled to God. Be at peace with God. Then spread that peace with everybody else.”
In a world and nation filled with conflict and division be a bridge builder, not a wall builder. Look for ways to bring people together rather than tear them apart.
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