I have recently learned that the body of Christ is a cutter. It is in such great pain that it further wounds and hurts itself in a scrambling effort to try and make it better. It's awful and it's hurtful, but mostly it's pitiful.
I don't have much to say except that we should be very careful what opinions we state and judgements we pass and positions we force in the name of the Lord. I have recently watch members of the church pass judgements that have been incredibly self-serving and that were motivated by fear and ego and old wounds rather than by healing or by service or by right. We all do that, but the people who I have recently witnessed are leaders in the church and are those who claim to want to serve and to give their lives and words to be more greatly watched.
I just want to say that I think people in leadership or in teaching positions in the Church should be only that much more careful when tell people that they can watch our lives and our actions and our opinions to learn how God feels about them ad how He treats them and what His priorities are.
Everybody makes mistakes, but when those deeply hurtful mistakes are made by people in leadership - people who have said, look at my life, I'd like to model the behaviors and treatments and priorities of God for you - we are teaching influenceable, weaker brothers wrong things about the Lord, and He takes that very seriously.
People who teach wrong things about God in the Bible are called false prophets, and how God feels about them and what God has in store for them is no more unclear than it is desirable.
We all - but especially those of us who tell people that we will teach them about who God is - need to be very, very careful that everyone knows our opinions and preferences are just that: OURS. I think it's fine to have a wrong opinion as long as you clearly let everyone know that you are neither basing this in Scripture nor modeling the Lord's priorities. When we don't do that, and we're in leadership, James says that we have asked people to watch us and learn about God through who we are and when we use it badly, God takes that very very very seriously.
I have watched a group of people pass judgements and hold opinions and make statements that, in my opinion, are incredibly self-serving and self-motivated, but they made them in the name of the Lord. They took what's right for themselves and held it up as what's right for the church and for others. I just want to mention that I think God's takes that very seriously - much more seriously than He does for those who don't claim to be pointing towards Him.
We are all sinful, and I think that we assume way too much that our opinions or preferences match those of God. I think maybe we should assume the opposite. Go ahead, and assume that your feelings about a situation are wrong until you can prove through Scripture and prayer and counsel that they aren't. I don't have an answer, but I wonder what would happen if we did that?
Additionally, I would just like to say that we (myself included...) need to be very careful when we demonize a member of the body and leave him or her in a position he they cannot defend himself. When His children cannot defend themselves against their enemies, God defends them. And if we are the enemies, that means that God is defending that person against us. Again, I think that His child being hurt and left without defense is something God takes very seriously.
I just think we need to be careful with opinions and feelings and preferences that we assert in the name of God's righteousness. We need to be sure.
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