The title of this post reflects a popular song by the Beatles, but it also reflects the key component that was intended to fuel the Church: love. Somewhere along the line Christians have fallen into the trap that all we need is right and wrong. But believe it or not, the purpose of the Bible is not to teach morality; it's purpose is to teach love.
The problem comes from such passages as Matthew 5 where, after a long string of apparent do's and don'ts, Jesus says, "be perfect as my father in heaven is perfect," or other passages which seem to explicitly tell us to be holy as God is holy. These passages have confused a lot of people through the years. Some have wanted to just throw them out of the bible or downplay them saying Jesus was exaggerating for dramatic effect. Others have taken these passages literally, pointing to them and saying, "see, we need to do good. Good works are important." I think there has just been a gross misunderstanding of these passages.
The Matthew 5 passage uses the Greek term teleios which literally means, "complete" or "finished." It does not mean perfect. Jesus wants us to be complete. In order to be complete, or to work towards the proper end (purpose) for which we were created (which is how this passage should be translated), we must love one another. Jesus says the two greatest commandments are to love God and love one another. Jesus said that his followers will be known by their love. Jesus said that we need to love our enemies. Our proper end is love, and the admonitions that preceded Jesus' command to "be perfect" describe how this kind of radical love works.
The passages that ask us to be holy have the very same purpose. Western culture has taught us that holiness means to follow the rules perfectly. The less we follow the rules, the less holy we are. But this is not what holiness was in the Bible. Holiness was love. Holiness was having a proper relationship with God in love that spilled out into your love for your fellow human being. When Jesus told us to be holy, he was telling us to have a deep, loving relationship with God, and to let that spill over into our relationships with one another.
I do not know where churches got the idea that Christians were to be the moral police and that being a Christian was about doing right and abstaining from wrong. If a person's focus is on sin, they will fall into sin. If a person's focus is on love, it is amazing what good they will do. The focus of the gospel time and time again was on love. The example Jesus gives us in his interactions with such people as the lady caught in adultery, or the Samaritan woman at the well, or the woman who bled for twelve straight years, or the Centurion, or a thousand other people is the example of love. The fact that Jesus showed love to everyone he came across and made them feel welcome and accepted should wake us up to the way the Church should be today.
While listening to Dr. Tony Campolo, a sociologist and Christian social activist, he told a story that really touched me. You can find the video imbedded below and I encourage you to watch it. He tells a story of being down in Hawaii and going for breakfast at 3:00 in the morning. While at this restaurant some prostitutes came in and sat beside him. One said to the other that tomorrow will be her birthday. The other one gave her some grief about it, and the birthday girl, Agnes, revealed that in her 39 years of life, she has never had a birthday party. So Tony planned a birthday party for her at 3:30 the next morning in the restaurant. Over thirty prostitutes showed up and they threw her her very first birthday party. She was so touched she couldn't even describe it. Tony ended up leading the prostitutes in prayer, to the shock of everyone there. When asked what kind of church Tony belonged to, he responded, "the kind of church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning." That is the kind of church I want to belong to. Not the kind that would say, "you shouldn't do that, prostitutes are bad people." If whores are worthy enough for my Lord, Jesus Christ to eat with, then certainly I am wrong to exclude them from my dinner table. In my Bible, Jesus teaches us to bring love to those who are unloved and to throw celebrations for those who don't feel they have anything to celebrate.
Jesus never taught that the church should be the moral police. Jesus never taught that we need to focus on doing right and avoiding wrong. Jesus reprimanded those who did such things and taught them that the law was about love, justice, and mercy, not rule (Matthew 23). Jesus taught that we are supposed to love on another. And that is what I am trying to practice. And that is what I think the Church should practice too.
Blessings,
-Brandon
No comments:
Post a Comment