Redeeming God

Liberating you from bad ideas about God

Learn the MOST ESSENTIAL truths for following Jesus.

Get FREE articles and audio teachings in my discipleship emails!


  • Join Us!
  • Scripture
  • Theology
  • My Books
  • About
  • Discipleship
  • Courses
    • What is Hell?
    • Skeleton Church
    • The Gospel According to Scripture
    • The Gospel Dictionary
    • The Re-Justification of God
    • What is Prayer?
    • Adventures in Fishing for Men
    • What are the Spiritual Gifts?
    • How to Study the Bible
    • Courses FAQ
  • Forum
    • Introduce Yourself
    • Old Testament
    • New Testament
    • Theology Questions
    • Life & Ministry
You are here: Home / Archives

Your Enemy is Your Prophet

By Jeremy Myers
12 Comments

Your Enemy is Your Prophet

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to love our enemies (Matt 5:44).

Since love for enemies is one of the most unnatural things for a human to do, I believe that enemy-love is one of the clearest and most defining characteristics of a true follower of Jesus. Show me someone who truly understands the heart of God, and I will show you someone who loves his or her enemies.

In recent months, I have discovered that one reason we can love our enemies is because they, above all others, might tell us the truth about our actions and behavior.

Normally, we humans tend to gather around us the people who will affirm our beliefs and behavior, and tell us that everything we think, do, and say is correct and loving and godly.

love your enemiesOf course, it is true what Proverbs 27:6 says, that “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiples kisses,” but this principle can often be reversed as well, in that friends often overlook our faults and failures because they love us (and maybe because they have the same issues), whereas enemies see through our self-righteous attitudes and hypocritical charades and are more willing to criticize and call us out for our many failures.

Yet when they do this, we tend to ignore what they say, because we believe they are only saying such things from spite and anger. And maybe they are.

But might there also be truth to what they are saying? If so, could it be that the criticism from our enemy is actually the voice of God to us?

I am reminded of the prophet Micaiah in 1 Kings 22. King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat were planning on going to war against Ramoth in Gilead. So they call all the prophets together to tell them whether their war will be successful or not. They have a parade of prophets — 400 of them — who tell the two kings to go to war against Ramoth, “for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king” (1 Kings 22:6).

King Jehoshaphat finds this a little strange that all 400 prophets say the same thing (or maybe they were not all prophesying in the name of Yahweh), so he asks if there is not a prophet of Yahweh around to ask what they should do (1 Kings 22:7).

And I love what King Ahab says. He tells King Jehoshaphat, “Oh sure… there’s Micaiah. But I hate him because he never tells me anything good.”

In other words, King Ahab viewed Micaiah as his enemy. He hated Micaiah.

Nevertheless, they had Micaiah come in, and initially, he agreed with the other 400 prophets in telling the two kings to go to war, for they would be victorious. But King Ahab knows Micaiah better than this (and I imagine that Micaiah’s tone of voice of flippant and sarcastic), so King Ahab says, “Stop lying to me. Tell the truth!” (1 Kings 22:16).

And Micaiah does. And he is the only one who prophesied correctly.

The King’s enemy was the only one who prophesied truth to the King.

I think the same thing is happening today within Christianity.

We have gathered around ourselves teachers who tell us what our itching ears want to hear, and we ignore and silence the prophetic voices who tell us what we need to hear because these prophetic voices come from those many Christians love to hate.

Our enemy is our prophet, but we ignore what he says because he is our enemy.

Like who?

Who is our prophetic enemy?

How about atheists?

Christians love to hate atheists. We feel we do not have to listen to them, because “They don’t believe in God.” They live “secular” lives. They “live in sin.” They “don’t believe the Bible.”

Atheists are prophets for Christianity.

Atheists often point out real problems with Christian theology, Christian practice, and Christian hypocrisy. They often show us how our portrait of a loving God is not very loving, how a God who accepts everybody really doesn’t, and how the values and priorities of many Christian churches and organizations do nothing to help with the real problems in this world.

In my opinion, we Christians fail to listen to the prophetic word from atheists at our own peril.

How about Muslims? Especially Muslim terrorists.

I watch the angry Muslims on TV calling for the death of America and waving signs about “the Great Satan.”

I believe they are flat-out wrong, but at the same time, I have to ask myself, “Why are they saying these things? What have we done to make them think such things about us?”

It is too “easy” of an answer to say that they are just delusional or that they have been lied to about Americans. Certainly they hear lies about us, just as we hear lies about them. But at the same time, we must listen to the complaints they have about American values, American greed, American morality, and American intervention in foreign affairs and recognize that our Muslim “enemies” might be making some good points.

This is especially true when the Christians in American offer full and complete blessings on everything the United States does overseas, including the killing of Muslims and the bombing of cities. Why is it okay for Christian leaders to call for God to bless us in killing our “Muslim enemies” but it is not okay for Muslim leaders to call for Allah to bless them in killing their Christian enemies?

Whatever happened to Jesus instruction for us to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”?

How about the LGBTQ community?

When they tell us that we Christians have treated them with hate and contempt, our response is, “No, we haven’t! We’re just warning you about your sin! It is loving to do so. If you don’t repent and change, God will judge you and our nation!”

Their response is, “See? That right there was hurtful. We think our lifestyle is loving, not sinful. Furthermore, it is not right to blame us for all the ill that happens to our country.”

“Well, you’re trying to put Christians out of business!”

“That’s true. Some people are doing that. Just like you Christians have done to us for hundreds of years. Are you saying it’s wrong?”

“Well, it’s wrong when you do it, but not when we do it, because God is on our side. You’re on the side of the devil.”

“That right there was hateful also.”

And the conversation goes on from there. Or more likely it stops.

But I believe that in these sorts of situations, Christians need to stop and listen to the LGBTQ community and what they say about Christian hatred. In this case, they are prophets, bringing to us a revelation from God.

Listening to Our Enemies is One Way to Love Them

In his excellent book, Engaging the Powers (I HIGHLY recommend it!), Walter Wink talks bout the gift of our enemy. He says that our enemies bring us revelations of ourselves that we cannot get from any other source:

These “revelations” (and they are precisely that) need to be treasured, because that is the gift our enemy may be able to bring us: to see aspects of ourselves that we cannot discover any other way than through our enemies. Our friends seldom tell us these things; they are our friends precisely because they are able to overlook or ignore this part of us. The enemy is thus not merely a hurdle to be leaped on the way to God. The enemy can be the way to God (Engaging the Powers, 273).

Do you have someone you consider to be your enemy? Do you know of a group of people that are considered the “enemies” of Christianity? If so, do not seek to harm, discredit, or ignore them. Instead, listen to what they have to say, for their words may in fact be the very voice of God to you and to me.

If you want to hear the voice of God, start by listening to your enemies.

listen to your enemy

God is Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: 1 Kings 22, love your enemies, loving others, Luke 6:27, Matthew 5:44, prophecy, Proverbs 27:6

Stop Calling Yourself a Christian

By Jeremy Myers
87 Comments

Stop Calling Yourself a Christian

love like JesusI think all of us “Christians” should stop referring to ourselves as “Christians.”

Nor should we ask other people if they are a “Christian.”

I have two lines of reasoning for why we should stop saying we’re Christians.

1. They were first called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:26)

When the term “Christian” was first invented, it was coined by an outside group of “pagans” who observed the way Jesus-followers behaved and recognized the similarity between what they were doing and what Jesus did. And so they called these Jesus followers “Christians.”

In other words, the first “Christians” did not take this title for themselves; it was given to them.

The term means “little Christ,” and while some scholars think that it was maybe intended to be a derogatory term (sort of like Yankee Doodle), I do not think so. I think the people of Antioch noticed how “Christ-like” the people were who claimed to follow Him, and so they started to referring to this Christ-like followers of Jesus as “Christians.” It was a way to identify them and talk about them.

they will know you are christians by your loveThe Christians of Antioch were not known for their hate, venom, judgmentalism, or religious pride, or even for their good theology, pious life, and vast Bible knowledge. Instead, They were knowing for looking and acting and behaving like Jesus Christ, and as a result, they were “called Christians” by those who were not Christians.

If the watching world started giving titles and nicknames to those who proclaim to follow Jesus today, what sort of titles do you think they would give us?

I am not sure I want to know … but I doubt it would be “Christian.”

But this leads me to the second line of reasoning for why we should stop calling ourselves “Christians.”

you keep calling yourself a Christian

2. They will know you are Christians by your love (John 13:35)

If you truly are a “Christian” you don’t have to tell people. They will know it. How? By your love.

Those who truly act like a “Christian” do not have to tell people they are a “Christian” because people already know it. They know it by your love.

I follow Jesus t-shirtI walked by two guys in the store the other day who were both wearing Christian t-shirts. One was saying to the other, “Yeah, they all hate me at work, but that’s okay, because I’m standing up for Christ.”

Now, I cannot say for sure, but I imagine that since I heard this about five days after the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage, that this man’s idea of “standing up for Christ” consisted of telling his coworkers that LGBT people were headed for hell, were destroying our country, and were signs of the collapse of modern society and traditional marriage.

Some religious people think that “standing up for Christ” in today’s culture means telling others that God hates gays. Just check out some of the comments on my post from two days ago.

Look, I don’t know where you stand on the gay marriage issue. I don’t care. What I do know, however, is that wherever you stand on gay marriage, the proper response to gay people is love.

The same goes for other groups of people some Christians love to hate. Like Muslims. Whatever you may think about the Muslim religion, the proper way to treat a Muslim is with love.

Love is the proper (and only) response to ALL people, no matter what they believe or do, if we are followers of Jesus.

If you want to represent Jesus to people, don’t do it by hating or condemning them. (And don’t use the line about how you “Love the sinner, but hate the sin.”)

Anyway, back to the conversation I heard in the store, I wanted to tell this guy who was proud of his “stand for Christ” that just because people hate you for what you say doesn’t mean that you are standing for Christ.

In fact, in the Gospels, the only people who really hated Jesus were the religious people. Those who were condemned and judged by the religious people loved Jesus and hung out with Him and were accepted by Him.

So if the world hates you but religious people love you, you might not be following Jesus.

Also, if, like this guy in the store, you have to tell people you are a Christian by broadcasting it on your t-shirt, you’re doing it wrong.

If we want to tell people we are followers of Jesus, we do it by loving them. Just as He loves us. Unconditionally. That’s what Godly love is.

I am convinced that the person who loves others unconditionally but doesn’t claim to follow Jesus is closer to the Kingdom of God than those who claim to follow Jesus but doesn’t love others unconditionally.

love is of GodIf love is of God, and everybody who loves is born of God and knows God because God is love (1 John 4:7-8), then it only makes sense that love will be the prevailing characteristic of one who is born of God and know God!

It is not a person’s words that make him or her a Christian, or what they post on Facebook or wear on their t-shirts, or even how many Bible verses they can quote, or how often they attend church and Bible studies, or whether they can “take a stand for Christ.”

They will know we are Christians by our love, and if you have not love, they will never know you are a Christian, no matter how much you tell them you are.

Or maybe I should put it this way: If you have not love, you can never properly act like a Christian, no matter how much you tell people you are one.

The REAL Question We Should be Asking Ourselves (and others)

So the question we should be asking is not “Am I a Christian?” but rather, “Am I Christ-like?”

“Do my words sound like words Jesus might say?”

“Do my actions look like things Jesus might do?”

“Do I love unconditionally, forgive freely, serve sacrificially, and accept all?”

“Do I challenge the religious status-quo for setting up barriers to God and creating groups of us vs. them?”

“Do I break down the walls of religion by eating with the so-called ‘tax-collectors and sinners’?”

If so, then keep living in love and looking like Jesus, and maybe, just maybe, someone might call you a “Christian.”

God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: 1 John 4:7-8, Acts 11:26, Christian, Discipleship, evangelism, hate, John 13:35, looks like Jesus, love, love like Jesus, missions

Stop Saying You “Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin”

By Jeremy Myers
487 Comments

Stop Saying You “Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin”

love the sinner hate the sinIt is common in Christian circles to hear admonitions to “Love the Sinner; hate the sin.”

More and more I hear this said in the context of LGBT people and gay marriage.

“Oh, I don’t hate gay people, I just hate the gay lifestyle. … You know, I love the sinner, but hate the sin.”

There are so many things wrong with the “Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin” statement, I hardly know where to begin. So let’s begin with a laugh:

Calvin and Hobbs love the sinner hate the sin

Now… on with the post…

There are several things wrong with the statement, “Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin.”

Let’s begin with the word “sinner”

love the sinner hate the sinThe simple fact that we label the person we are talking about as a “sinner” indicates that we do not have love for them in the first place.

To label someone a “sinner” is to imply that they are outside of God’s grace and unless they clean up their act, cannot be forgiven.

To label someone a “sinner” reveals an “us vs. them” mentality, where you are the “righteous” person looking down your nose at the poor, wretched, ignorant “sinners” down below who just cannot get their act together. If only they would listen to what you tell them to do…

We Christians pay lip service to the idea that “We are all sinners” but we reveal that we do not really believe this when label someone else a “sinner.”

By labeling them a “sinner,” we condemn the sin of someone else as worse than our own.

Then there’s the word “hate”

love vs hateWhen a watching world says Christians are full of hate, it is not a good strategy to tell them that we don’t hate them we just hate their sin.

Why do we have to “hate” anything?

Is it because God “hates” sin?

Well, there are some statement like this in the Bible, but such statements require great care in understanding and applying them to life.

We have to understand why God says what He says.

We also have to recognize that even if God does “hate” (which I don’t think He does … at least, not the way we understand it), He doesn’t anywhere tell us to hate.

Furthermore, we have to recognize that when God uses this sort of language about certain sins, it is not because He that upset at the person for committing the sin, or even at the sin itself for being so “terrible.” God isn’t nearly as worked up about sin as we are. God is not in the sin-management business.

The reason God says some strong things about certain sins in the Bible is because these sins hurt us, and He loves us, and doesn’t want to see us hurt by sin.

So if you really, really want to hate someone’s sin, hate a sin which is actually hurtful to them and to others. Hate a sin like rape, murder, incest, child abuse, torture, sex slavery, or one of the other multitudes of damaging and destructive sins.

But why do we Christians sometimes focus on hating the “sins” in others that they say results in love and community? If a homosexual couple wants to get married because they say they love each other, why would we say they cannot?

“Because it destroys families!”

Really? How exactly does their love hurt your family? I suspect any problems in your family might be found a bit closer to home…

“Because it destroys the definition of marriage!”

Is it really? And even if it does, so what? What is more important? The definition of a word or a relationship between people? Don’t use an argument over the definition of a word as an excuse to hate people. That sounds an awful lot like something a Pharisee would do in the days of Jesus. Even if the definition of marriage changes, will that somehow ruin your marriage? I cannot possibly think how.

“Yeah, but … but … AIDS!!! They’re gonna get AIDS and AIDS will hurt them and so I’m just trying to warn them about the dangers of AIDS! You see? I am concerned about them! I don’t want them to get AIDS!”

… If this is how you express your concern, I think they don’t need it.

I could say so much more about this, but I must move on. Here is a post which says more: Love the Sinner, hate the sin is really just hate

love the sinner hate the sin is just hate

There is also a problem with the word “sin”

Yes, yes, “sin” is a biblical word. No, I don’t want people to stop talking about sin.

But here is what I have noticed in my own life, and among the majority of Christians.

We all have our “favorite sins” we commit.

We have sins we ourselves commit all the time that we don’t bat an eyelash at. And when someone point out to us the sin in our own life, we say, “Well, Christians aren’t perfect, you know.” Or maybe we say, “Thank God for grace!” Or possibly, “Yeah, I know that’s an issue, but God is working with me on that.” Occasionally, we may even justify our behavior and says, “What?! No, that’s not a sin! Stop judging me!”

Lots of these “favorite sins” in Christians circles are even “Pulpit approved.” That is, pastors and churches leaders raise up these “sins” as virtues to be acquired.

The sin of pride is called “healthy self-esteem.”

The sin of gluttony is called “Respecting the wife’s cooking.”

The sin of laziness is called “relaxing after work.”

The sin of greed is calling “planning for the future.”

The sin of national idolatry is called “patriotism.”

The sin of hate is called “warning them of the fires of hell.”

The sin of anger is called “standing up for what I believe.”

And so on.

These are our favorite sins, and we have baptized our sins to make them acceptable and even praiseworthy. And even when our sins our not praiseworthy, we allow ourselves excuses which we never allow to anyone else.

mark lawry on love the sin hate the sinner

And then we have our “favorite sins” we like to point out in others.

These sins are ones we typically do not commit, but we use these to make ourselves feel better about our own sin. How? We point them out in others and condemn them and their sin for all the problems in the world and in society.

Ironically, when we point out the “sin” in others, we hardly ever allow them to use the same “excuses” toward us that we use toward others about the sin in our own lives. We tell them that their sin is worse than ours. That their sin is destroying the unity in the church. That their sin is bringing down our country. That their sin is perverting our culture. That they better fix their life right now, or God is going to kill them and punish them and send them to hell to burn forever.

More ironically still, the favorite sin we love to condemn in others the most are usually the sins that are mentioned by Scripture the least, whereas the “favorite sins” we ourselves commit are the sins that get a lot of attention in Scripture.

Take the most popular “sin” in America to condemn right now: homosexuality. It is mentioned 3 times in the Bible (6 times at the most, depending on how you want to understand a few terms).

But how often are greed, pride, slander, gluttony, anger, and hatred mentioned? I don’t know, but it’s probably in the hundreds for each one.

So why have we picked out this one “sin” as the one to focus on?

Because we need a scapegoat to blame for our own sin, and the “other,” the “outsider,” the “one who is not like us,” is always the person who gets chosen to be the scapegoat.

So to bring this back around…

love and hateWhen we say, “Love the sinner; hate the sin,” what we are really saying is “I will love only those I want to love, and I will hate and despise and cast out those people who do things I have decided are worse than the things I myself do, and this way I can make myself feel better while I condemn them for all the problems that I myself have contributed to but don’t want to admit.”

That’s my problem with the word “sin” in that statement. It sets us up in the position of God to decide which sins are worse than others, and which sins can be overlooked and which cannot. It makes us the arbiter or grace and forgiveness.

Which is the worst sin of all? When we say “Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin” we ourselves commit the worse sin possible, by setting ourselves up in the position of God to decide which sin is acceptable and which is not. We Christians must repent of this self-idolatrous, scapegoating judgmentalism of others.

And finally, the entire “Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin” statement is complete BS

If you just take the statement as a whole, it makes no sense.

People are complex creatures, and psychologically and emotionally, it is nearly impossible to separate what a person does from who a person is. This is especially true when a person is the way they are because they were born that way.

Forget homosexuality; take obesity as an example.

Many people who are overweight say that they were born with a slow metabolism, or they have some sort of disorder. Or maybe they went through some difficult times in life that were out of their control and psychologically turned to food for comfort. Or maybe they were just born with tastebuds and a stomach that really liked to eat good food.

Now imagine going up to such a person and saying, “Overeating is a sin. I love you, but I hate your fatness.” How will such a person respond?

I believe that person will be rightly offended.

Here’s the bottom line: If you love someone, you love all of them — even the lifestyle choices that might have resulted from sinful actions and behavior.

This does not mean you have to agree with what they do, but instead, you simply view the things in their life that you don’t agree with the same way you view all the sinful habits and choices you make in your own life.

And how do you want people to view you and your sin? You want to be loved while others withhold judgment.

This also is how you should view others who do things, say things, or live in ways that you think are “sinful.” Just love them, and withhold judgment.

And look, if you really want to start judging some sin somewhere, start with the whole mess in your own life first. Stop pointing out what you think is the sinful behavior in other people, and instead, work on the stuff in your own life.

I think Jesus said something about that… (You know … something about specks in their eye and a log in your own?) And when the Bible does talk about the relationship between love and sin, it says that love covers a multitude of sins. Hmmm…

just love and forgive the sin

The One Word I Like

So when it comes down to it, the only part of the “Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin” statement that I like is the word “love.”

just loveAnd why can’t that be enough? When we see someone else behaving in ways we don’t approve of and which we think is sin (and as long as it’s not illegal or harming someone), why can’t “love” be the only word that comes to our mind?

Apparently, Jesus loved this other person enough to die for them. And if He loved them, why can’t we?

So the next time you are tempted to say you “Love the Sinner; hate the sin,” just stop at love.

God is Redeeming Life, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: forgiveness, homosexuality, looks like Jesus, love, love like Jesus, Theology of Sin

Let the gay marriage games begin!

By Jeremy Myers
28 Comments

Let the gay marriage games begin!

In light of the ruling from the Supreme Court about Gay Marriage, I knew it wouldn’t be long before:

  1. The name-calling and back-stabbing among Christians got worse (not better),
  2. Lawsuits began to fly between the right of gay people to get married and the right of certain religious people to not marry them
  3. A continued attempt by some to redefine (further) what constitutes a “marriage.”

gay marriageI just didn’t think it would all happen so quickly… But I was wrong.

Christian name-calling over Gay Marriage

Calvinistic Pastor Kevin DeYoung wrote a post that went viral which used the “When did you stop beating your wife?” approach to ask 40 questions to Christians who support gay marriage.

In response, John Shore wrote a post of his own, showing that when it comes to asking loaded questions that imply guilt before they are even asked, two can play that game.

I laughed more when I read John Shore’s post, so … he wins.

Edit: At the recommendation from one of the comments, I read Susan Cottrell’s 40 answers to the 40 questions. She makes excellent points.ย Go read it.

Both bloggers were pretty tame when it came to name-calling, but expect this sort of back-and-forth rhetoric to continue by all sides of this debate, with the name-calling and finger-pointing only getting more and more angry and ugly.

This shows once again how well we Christians have learned to “Be one” (John 17:21).

Lawsuits: Gay Marriage vs. Religious Freedom

A Christian county clerk in Kentucky has refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. She cited her religious beliefs as the motivating reason for her actions. Two gay couples have filed a lawsuit. I suspect she will lose that lawsuit, because issuing a license in her capacity as a county clerk is quite different from whether she herself believes that gay people should be able to get married.

If she feels it is wrong for gay people to get married, she has the religious freedom to believe this. But as a person who holds a public office, she needs to follow the law and issue the marriage licenses. If she is unable to do this in good conscience, that is fine also, but in that case, she should quit her job because she is unable to carry it out.

The REAL issue is going to happen when a gay couple, who has been issued a marriage license, approaches a prominent pastor and asks him to perform the wedding, and he refuses. Will the gay couple sue? Maybe. Maybe not. If they do, will religious freedom win out, or will the right of gay couples to get married win the day? I suspect that in this case, religious freedom will win, but it all pretty much depends on how the pastor handles himself.

Remember, many pastors during the Civil Rights movement refused to let black people into their churches on the basis of the “religious belief” that black people were inferior. In such cases, the laws of the land won out over religious freedom (and rightly so, in my opinion).

It will be interesting to see how these court cases play out… but no matter what happens, we expect to see more vitriol from all sides of the debate…

What exactly is a “marriage”?

Nathan Collier 2 wivesIn the wake of the Supreme Court basically saying that two people can get married if they love each other, even if they are of the same sex, a Montana man and his two wives have requested to get legally married. He plans to sue the state if he is denied. And if he loses there, he might even end up in the Supreme Court.

It will be interesting to see if all those in favor of Gay marriage will use the same arguments to support a marriage between three people. Or four? Or twenty?

Hmmm … I wonder what sort of tax-break a “marriage” would get from the IRS if the marriage consisted of 100 people? It wouldn’t be “filing jointly” anymore … but “filing grouply” or “filing crowdly.” And imagine how many kids that family would have! There could be hundreds! The IRS would be paying them tens of thousands of dollars a year in “Earned Income Credit.” This could be a really good job.

I have heard some Christians argue that this “redefinition” of marriage will result in further redefinition (as with Nathan Collier). They could be right. The more alarmist groups say that it won’t be long before marriage is allowed between a man and an underage daughter, or a man and his dog. This is ridiculous, of course. Neither animals nor underage children are considered consensual adults.

But, I see no logical reason at this point for the courts to deny Nathan Collier to get legally married to two wives…

So … am I FOR or AGAINST Gay Marriage?

Some readers of this blog have criticized me in the past for appearing to support gay marriage. I have never come out in actual support of it. At the same time, I have never spoken against it. And I am not doing so here either. If you are curious what Jesus said about homosexuality, you can read that here…

I also really liked Chuck McKnight’s stance on the gay marriage ruling. Go read his post and let me know what you think.

So what exactly am I saying?

The only thing I am really saying in this post is this: “I knew all this was coming, but WOW that was fast!”

God is Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: gay marriage, homosexuality, lgbt, marriage

The Sermon on the Mount according to Congressional Jesus

By Jeremy Myers
17 Comments

The Sermon on the Mount according to Congressional Jesus

Jesus sermon on the mount

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For they can get a job at minimum wage.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they made their bad decisions andย must sufferย the consequences.
Blessed are the meek,
For we can take advantage of them.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For we can promise them free food to get them to vote for us.
Blessed are the merciful,
For we will remove them from their positions for not being โ€œtough on crime.โ€
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they are the most gullible.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they know how to make peace through war.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake,
For they will turn over secrets about their terrorist activities.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for this proves that you are standing up for the right things in the right way.

You are the salt of the earth. That is why old white guys must rule you. We must preserve our society and culture the way it has always been. If we allow the pepper to rule, they will only trample us underfoot.

You are the light of the world. That is why we need incandescent lightbulbs instead of those energy-saving fluorescents. We donโ€™t want our light to be hidden. We like using a lot more electricity to light a room. This is what glorifies the freedom our Father in heaven gave us.

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to uphold the sanctity of the Constitution. It is the most perfect document ever written, and our interpretation of it is the only right one. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle (that word always makes me laugh) will by no means pass from the Law until the whole world follows it.

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be stripped of his freedoms and liberties and given a life sentence in prison. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be given special privileges and favors in my Kingdom. For I say to you do exactly what I tell you all the time, you wonโ€™t ever get a seat at the table.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, โ€œYou shall not murder,โ€ and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother has just cause to do so if that brother is a liberal, a gay, or a Muslim. And whoever says to his brother, โ€œRaca!โ€ will not be understood, because nobody says that anymore. But whoever says, โ€œYou fool!โ€ shall be called a sissy-ninny for not using stronger language.

Therefore if you are bringing your gift as a donation to my re-election campaign, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift with my campaign manager, and then go away to your brother, and blackmail him into also donating to my campaign. This way, you will shut him up, and if your gifts are large enough, both of you will receive favors from me later on.

But if he takes you to court, get your own lawyer quickly, and counter-sue the pants off him. Otherwise, he will deliver you over a judge who has probably been bribed, and you could end up in prison. Then all that you worked so hard for will go to your enemy who put you in prison. It is much better to sue him and take his money first. This way, you can give it to me.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, โ€œYou shall not commit adultery.โ€ But I say to you that it is perfectly normal for a man to look at pretty young women who are on their staff, and that what your wife doesnโ€™t know wonโ€™t hurt her. So go to the strip clubs and have fun. Hire the prostitutes on your trips to Europe. Take your girlfriend with you South America. After all, adultery for real is much more fun than adultery in the heart.

If your right eye starts to look at a beautiful woman as she walks by, let your left look also. You get better depth perception that way. It is more profitable to take a good look, and then later to ask her out for drinks, than to let your member burn with passion. And if your right hand causes you to sin, make sure you use lotion.

Jesus politicsFurthermore, it has been said, โ€œWhoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.โ€ But I say to you that it looks bad to divorce your wife, so stay married for appearance sake, while you sleep around as much as you want. If you can get your wife to agree to this, even better, for itโ€™s not adultery if your wife knows what youโ€™re doing.

Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, โ€œYou shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.โ€ But I say to you, say whatever it is you need to say to get the deal done, and then feel free to do exactly the opposite later on. Let your โ€œYesโ€ be โ€œYesโ€ and your โ€œNo,โ€ โ€œNoโ€ when the person is in front of you, but after they leave, go ahead and renege on everything you said.

You have heard that it was said, โ€œAn eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.โ€ But I tell you to not resist an evil person; just kill him. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, pull out your .357 and let the bullets fly. If anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, sue him first and take his tunic and his shoes. And whoever compels you to go one mile, drag your feet and go as slow as possible so it wastes their time. Give to him who asks you, but at a decent return, and from him who wants to borrow from you, make sure you charge a high percentage rate.

You have heard that it was said, โ€œYou shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.โ€ But I say to you to walk softly and carry a big stick. Strike hard and strike fast before your enemy can strike you. Remove the threat before you yourself are threatened. Bomb your enemies, sue those who curse you, do harm to those who hate you, and picket those who spitefully use you or persecute you. This is how you will be sons of your Father, for He sends AIDS on gays, tsunamis on Indonesian Muslims, hurricanes on New Orleans, and famine on lazy Africans.

For if you love those who love you, you will be able to reward each otherโ€™s good health and prosperity. Thatโ€™s how tax collectors get so rich. Therefore, you shall be perfect, and everybody else in the world can be despised as ignorant scum.

Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them, unless there is a camera crew nearby who can print their pictures in the newspaper and post them online. Otherwise, your good deed is wasted. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound the trumpet before you, because everyone will just thank youโ€™re strange. Instead, send out a press release to the local newspaper, or allow a staff member to leak your plans to the local press. This will get you the glory before men that you need.

But when you do your charitable deed, do not try to type your Tweets and Facebook updates into your iPhone with your left hand, for this is how many unfortunate typos have brought scorn upon others. A good deed with an embarrassing typo ruins the good deed. This way, your charitable deeds will look unplanned and ordinary, but everybody will see you do them and will think youโ€™re a great guy, and you will receive your reward openly from all.

And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. They love to pray standing in front of churches and religious people that they may be seen. But nobody in church takes pictures. So you, when you pray, go onto the floor of the Senate, or stand before the National Prayer Breakfast, and say your prayers there. People will take pictures and write down your prayers for publication in the newspaper, and everybody will see what a devout person you really are.

When you pray, do not try to pray off the cuff. This will only cause you to repeat yourself and babble like an incoherent idiot. Instead, have a team of professional writers draft your prayers. Make theme eloquent and poetic, so that everybody will praise you for how in touch with God you must be to utter such beautiful prayers.
In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your Kingdom come through me and my political platform,
Your will be done through the bills I want to pass,
Since our plans for this earth match your plans from heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, along with prime rib and fancy French wine,
And forgive us our debts, because you know weโ€™re never paying off $14 Trillion.
But we wonโ€™t forgive our debtors, because they owe us money.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil gays, Muslims, and Liberals.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, and we want some of it for ourselves.
Amen.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, you are letting them take advantage of you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, you will have the power to control and manipulate their lives.

Moreover, when you fast โ€ฆ on second thought, just donโ€™t fast. Why would you do that to yourself? If you are overweight, you might want to go on a diet, but who can diet when there is fried chicken to eat, and 64-oz Cokes to drink? I canโ€™t believe Bloomberg outlawed large sodas in New York and Hillary is trying to make school lunches healthy! What happened to our Constitutional freedom to slowly kill ourselves and our children by eating too much unhealthy food? But you should wash your hands before you eat. If you donโ€™t, that just gross.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Instead, put your treasures in a bank or a 401(k) where your money is FDIC insured and you can invest it. This will allow you to lay up even more treasure for yourself, and best of all, the government only taxes investment income at 15%, which is less than they tax the poor schmuck who works at McDonalds. Best of all, if you get rich enough, you can make horrible decisions with your money, and the government will bail you out because you are too big to fail. In this way, moths and rust will never destroy what you have and thieves can never steal it. For where your treasure is, there is your future security.

The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore you eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, go get Lasik surgery. Itโ€™s come a long way and wearing glasses makes you look old and weak.

sermon on the mount Jesus politiican

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despite the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon. The best route is to act like you are serving God so that everybody who does serve Him will give you money.

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, not about your body, what you will put on. If you become rich enough, restaurants will let you eat for free and clothing chains will give you clothes to wear if only you announce that they are your clothing line of choice. Look of the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. Instead, they steal seed from farmerโ€™s fields and kill worms for their breakfast. Are you not more important than birds? So donโ€™t worry about where your food and clothing will come from; just take it from others.

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Thatโ€™s because Solomon had silks and jewels, which is better by far than any flower Iโ€™ve ever seen. Besides, those flowers wither away and get burned up in the sun. Solomonโ€™s reign, with his nice clothes and good food, lasted quite a bit longer than that.

For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness by donating to my campaign, and I will see what you have done, and will make sure to reward you later on.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow. Give me your money, and let me take care of tomorrow for you. Each day has enough trouble of its own, so come to me and let me provide for your future.

Judge not, that you not be judged. Unless you have the legal standing to make your judgment, and can defend your case before a court of law. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, unless the judge is a friend of yours and owes you a favor. For with whatever measure you paid him off, he will measure back to you with an important court decision.

And why do you look at the speck in your brotherโ€™s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? The reason is because we must never admit we are wrong, even when it is obvious to everyone else. Deflect the blame by pointing out the speck in your brotherโ€™s eye. Donโ€™t say to your brother, โ€œLet me remove the speck from your eye,โ€ because then there wonโ€™t be anything you can blame him for. You can get people to stop focusing on the plank in your own eye by pointing out the speck in your brotherโ€™s eye. The people will believe this, because they are like dogs and swine. Their attention simply needs to be diverted to someone else before they trample you under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him to knocks the door will be opened, so that whatever favor I give to you will be returned to me when I call upon you later on. What man among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? Give people “bread and circus,” and you can do anything you want. If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to those who back you, how much more can you expect good gifts from those who need your support? Therefore, whatever you want men to do for you, do also for them, but in a way that puts them at your mercy and in your debt.

Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that everyone else enters by, and I donโ€™t want them to see you visit me late at night. The narrow gate is out behind the house. Iโ€™ll give you the passcode for the keyless entry lock on the door. This gate is narrow and it is difficult to find, but this way we can do our business without prying eyes.

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheepโ€™s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. It is essential you teach your immigrant workers the difference between the good fruit and bad fruit, or you will never get any profits from your vineyard. Tell them that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. They might be able to understand that.

Not everyone who says to Me, โ€œLord, Lord,โ€ shall be able to work for me. Itโ€™s not what they say that matters, but what they are willing to do for me. Many come to me and promise to bring me large profits, to cast out the illegal immigrant demons from our country, and create many jobs in my name, but when they fail to do what was promised, I cast them away from me, and get them fired from their jobs or sent to prison for lawlessness.

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock. It was high up on a hill and very beautiful. We had many great parties there where he introduced me to many large donors. When the economy descended and the political flood rose, and the media winds blew and beat against his house, I was able to pull some strings and protect him. He did not fall from his position, for he was founded on the rock.

But everyone who hears these sayings of mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. He had an oceanfront home near Santa Barbara. It also was very nice, but did not do what I asked him and so when the economy fell and the political flood rose, and the media winds blew and beat against his house, I stood back and watched is fall with a grin on my face. It was a great fall and the man is now in prison.

God is Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: Jesus, politics, sermon on the mount

I’m the Ice Queen now, and you’ll never see me again

By Sam Riviera
4 Comments

I’m the Ice Queen now, and you’ll never see me again

Below is the second letter in the series, โ€œLetters To Dad.โ€ They are written by Sam Riviera, and are based on the true stories of people he actually knows in real life. This letter is from a woman named Amy, who is now an adult (Amy is not her real name).

In case you do not know, โ€œBoostingโ€ means stealing. โ€œDoing meโ€ means molesting her. โ€œIceโ€ is meth. โ€œIce Queenโ€ means she is sexually frigid and can never have a sexual relationship with a man. She is not a lesbian. โ€œIce Queenโ€ also means she is doing well enough stealing to buy all the ice she wants.

meth for the ice queen

Dad,

You are probably hoping Iโ€™m dead, but Iโ€™m not. Ignore the postmark on the envelope. Wherever it says, itโ€™s not where I am. A friend on a cross-country trip promised to mail this letter several states away from me. The most Iโ€™ll tell you is that Iโ€™m nowhere close to you and itโ€™s going to stay that way. Permanently.

Oh yeah, I have a new name and identity. Once I got a birth certificate with a new name, the rest was easy. So donโ€™t bother looking for me. I donโ€™t exist anymore, at least not by the name you know. Even if you could somehow find me, you wonโ€™t do it before I turn eighteen. Then you canโ€™t ever make me do anything I donโ€™t want to. Never again.

The money I had saved ran out a few weeks after I took off. Then I hooked up with a couple of people on the road. Theyโ€™ve taught me how to survive. Weโ€™re luckier than most. We donโ€™t have to sell ourselves to dirty, perverted old men. We rip โ€˜em off. Boosting is the name of the game.

You gave me an education too. Thatโ€™s what you called it, right? How stupid did you think I was even when I was little? I didnโ€™t need your brand of education.

โ€œReadinโ€™, writinโ€™, and โ€˜rithmatic.
Taught to the tune of a hickory stick.โ€

You thought I wouldnโ€™t remember what you sang when you were doing me when I was eight? I remember. Every stinking detail.

Are you doing the same stuff to my sisters? Maybe your sheriff will be getting an anonymous letter one of these days tipping him off. Maybe the neighbors and the church people will be getting some anonymous letters too. It would serve you right.

Iโ€™m not asking for an apology. Never will. Youโ€™re not capable. I wouldnโ€™t believe you if you apologized. You wouldnโ€™t mean it. No matter how many times you said youโ€™re sorry it wouldnโ€™t make any difference.

But youโ€™re not sorry, are you?

I still wonder though … Why did mom think you took me out to your workshop in the garage several times a week? How could she not know what was going on? She was afraid of you, wasnโ€™t she? Thatโ€™s why she never came out to the garage.

runaway daughterWhatever. Youโ€™ll never see me again. Youโ€™ll never know my name. Youโ€™ll never know where I am or what Iโ€™m doing. But you should always be looking over your shoulder. Maybe that car door closing out front is the sheriff getting out of his car to come get you because Iโ€™ve decided to testify against you.

Maybe, just maybe, I keep in touch with someone whoโ€™s keeping an eye on you. If I ever, ever hear youโ€™ve been touching my sisters or any other kid you can bet your ass youโ€™ll see me again. On the witness stand at your trial.

In the meantime Iโ€™ve moved on. Iโ€™m doing just fine, thank you. Iโ€™d be doing just fine living under a bridge so long as it was nowhere close to you.

Keep yourself out of prison, old man.

The Ice Queen, formerly known as Amy

God is Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: homeless, Letters to Dad, Sam Riviera

3 simple words to say to an atheist who criticizes Christianity

By Jeremy Myers
48 Comments

3 simple words to say to an atheist who criticizes Christianity

A while back, a man sent me a question about how he should respond to his atheist son who has nothing but criticism for Christianity. He told me that he had read several books of apologetics, had used numerous arguments for the existence of God, and had tried to show his son all the important things that Christianity had done in the world over the past 2000 years.

Despite all the evidence for the existence of God and the arguments for the goodness of Christians, this man’s son was still not convinced, and remained an atheist. The son pointed out to the father all the hateful things that Christians said and did, as well as all the violent things that God commanded in the Bible. As a result, the son told his father that he could never believe in or follow a God like that or trust anyone who represented him.

This father wrote to me to see if I had any insight into what he could tell his son to show him how wrong he was.

There are two possible ways I could have answered him. First, there is this possible answer:

arguing with atheistic criticism of Christianity

Somehow, I don’t think the flowchart above would help any atheist. Sadly, such a flowchart is the route many Christians choose to use when arguing with atheists.

So below is the edited and revised version of what I actually invited this Christian father to tell his atheist son:

My son,

You wrote about all the mean Christians you know, and how we have done and said so many hateful and hurtful things in history, and even in our own day.

You also wrote about all the violence in the Bible which was done in the name of God, and apparently by His command, and how abhorrent this appears to be.

Regarding these issues, I have only three words to say:

You are right.

You are right that there are lots of people all over the world and throughout time doing lots of horrible things in the name of Christianity.

And there is no point in me saying that all those people who are doing these evil things in the name of God are wrong, for they would probably say that I am wrong for disagreeing with what they do in God’s name.

So all I can do is agree with you.

Those hateful things should never have been said. Especially not when said “in the name of Jesus.”

Those hurtful deeds should never have been done. Especially not “in the name of Jesus.”

And while I do believe in God, I believe in the God revealed in Jesus, who looks nothing like the violent deity of the Old Testament. This doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in the Old Testament; I do. I just think something different is going on in those ancient texts than what most Christians assume. But whatever the Old Testament texts teach, they do not and should not give Christians a license to act like the devil in the name of God.

Here is what I believe:

I believe that Jesus called us to love people unconditionally.

I believe that any time anybody claims to follow Jesus but they do not love people, they are not following Jesus.

I believe that if what I practice is true, then these practices will help me love others more.

Yes, I know that there are lots of “religious” things about Christianity with which you object. But please know that none of that is important if it doesn’t help me love others like Jesus.

If these other religious activities do not help me love others like Jesus, then I hope that one day I am able to weed them out of my life as you suggest and become more like you. If they donโ€™t help me love others, then they probably arenโ€™t true. And If they do help me love others, I hope you will be able to see it in my life by how I treat others.

I love you,
Dad

I do not think that what I wrote will help this man’s atheistic son become a Christian, but it will certainly help the father live more like a Christian.

And that’s the point, isn’t it?

Christianity is not about proving others wrong, but about proving others are loved.

Do you have atheists friends or family members? I invite you to take a similar approach with them. Agree with our atheist critics! Admit and confess to the numerous places where Christians have got it wrong, and state that the only real goal of following Jesus is love.

If you do this, you may come to realize that maybe, just maybe, atheist are more in tune to the Holy Spirit than Christians are, and that maybe, just maybe, God is calling Christians to follow Him more closely through the prophetic voice of the atheist.

God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: atheists, Christianity, following Jesus, love like Jesus, love others

Why I Let a “Murderer” Live in My House

By Jeremy Myers
6 Comments

Why I Let a “Murderer” Live in My House

James (not his real name) and his brother had been convicted of murder. Both were given life sentences and had begun doing their time. But then (for reasons I wonโ€™t go into here) the courts decided to give James a retrial. And while he was awaiting retrial, they allowed him to post bail and live under house arrest.

There was only one problem: James had no house in which to live while under house arrest.

So my wife and I offered to have James live with us in our house. We had a one-year old daughter at the time.

Nearly everyone in the church I was pastoring counseled us against such an action. They told us we were putting ourselves and our new daughter at risk. They told us his presence in our home would create stress on our marriage, from which we would never recover. Some of the people wanted to know if he would be attending our church. They were not sure they wanted a convicted murderer to be attending our church while he awaited trial.

But we took him in anyway. He lived with us for about 6 months. Eventually, James was found innocent, and has been living as a free man ever since. I even had the privilege of performing his wedding several years back.

And let me tell you … those six months that James lived with us were some of the best months my wife and I experienced in our young family, and were some of the best months I had as a pastor in the church where I worked. His presence in our house was a blessing to all of us.

I am not recommending that anyone do this. It is true what the people in my church said: Taking in a convicted murderer could be dangerous. So I do not share this story to say that everybody should follow my example. I myself might not follow my example if a similar situation arose today.

But at the time, based on where we were at in life, and based on what we knew of James and his situation, it was the right thing to do, and we never felt the least bit of fear or concern. We hope that we also were able to give James a sense of love, acceptance, safety, and comfort as he faced an uncertain future.

I think this is how the Christian concept of โ€œhospitalityโ€ works.

Christian Hospitality

The way Christian hospitality often functions in most churches today is that every once in a while, some people in the church invite other members of the church over to dinner. They eat a meal, share some stories, and then the guests go back to their own home.

But this is not really hospitality. This is entertaining. Most Christian hospitality is little more than Christian entertaining.

There is nothing wrong with entertaining. Entertaining is a form of fellowship, and is a great way to get to know other people. My wife and I โ€œentertainโ€ all the time, and we thoroughly enjoy it.

Christian hospitality, however, is quite different.

gospel hospitality

True Biblical Hospitality

In biblical times, hospitality involved allowing newcomers in town to stay in your house while they were there. It involved giving itinerant prophets a place to live. It included taking people in from the street where they were likely to get hurt. It may even include giving food and lodging to those who were too poor or too sick to care for themselves.

The common theme to hospitality, it seems, involves meeting a physical need of someone else, especially in regard to food, lodging, and safety.

It meant taking those who were in some sort of need or danger, and providing them with food, lodging, safety, and security. It meant making your home their home.

How might hospitality look today?

hospitalityIt might look like my friend Sam Riviera, when he takes food, clothing, and a kind word to the homeless people on the streets of San Diego.

It might look like my friend Dan Mayhew, who lets people live in his home in Portland.

It might look like the people all over the world who allow teachers like Wayne Jacobsen to stay in their homes while he is traveling or speaking.

It might look like my parents, who let a homeless man (and his dog) live with them for about a year while he was working to get his feet back under him.

It might look like my friends, Pam and Dona, who are allowing a woman to live with them while she faces numerous physical problems and has nobody else to take care of her.

It might look like my wife and daughters, who regularly helped an elderly neighbor with his yard work and grocery shopping after he had heart surgery.

As you can see, the forms of hospitality are as diverse as the people to whom hospitality is shown.

Hospitality begins with a willingness and desire to share what you have with people in need. Maybe it is your food. Maybe it is a spare room. Maybe it is clothing.

And then hospitality takes place when God brings people to our attention that have needs, and we seek to meet those needs with what God has given us.

Hospitality, as someone has defined it, is making someone else โ€œfeel at home.โ€ How can we, as followers of Jesus, help others โ€œfeel at homeโ€ when they are in our presence? How can we put them at ease, serve their needs, give them comfort, safety, healing, and rest?

Hospitality is not true hospitality unless it makes us less comfortable and someone else more.

Do you have examples of how you or a friend showed hospitality to someone else? Do you have suggestions or tips on how people can develop hospitality? Share your stories and ideas in the comment section below.

Note: This post was part of the June 2015 Synchroblog. Here is a list of posts from the other contributors:

  • A Sacred Rebel โ€“ Hospitality
  • Carol Kuniholme โ€“ Violent Unwelcome. Holy Embrace.
  • Glen Hager โ€“ Aunt Berthie
  • Leah Sophia โ€“ welcoming one another
  • Mary โ€“ The Space of Hospitality
  • Loveday Anyim โ€“ Is Christian Hospitality a Dead Way of Life?
  • Tony Ijeh โ€“ Is Hospitality Still a Vital Part of Christianity Today?
  • Clara Ogwuazor Mbamalu โ€“ Have we replaced Hospitality with Hostility?
  • Liz Dyer โ€“ Prayer For The Week โ€“ Let us be Godโ€™s hospitality in the world
  • K.W. Leslie โ€“ Christian Hospitality

God is Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, fellowship, hospitality, synchroblog

The guy puking after Malcolm Guite mentions Contemporary Christian music made me laugh … but the rest made me cry.

By Jeremy Myers
8 Comments

The guy puking after Malcolm Guite mentions Contemporary Christian music made me laugh … but the rest made me cry.

I had never heard of Malcolm Guite before I saw this video, but when I heard what he says about art and people and the Gospel and everyone living in the light of Jesus, I discovered that I love him. Malcolm says what I tried to say in my post, Everyone is Following Jesus.

Watch this video. Enjoy it. Watch it again. Then invite others to watch it also.

Oh… and as I mention in the title, don’t miss the guy puking right after Malcolm mentions contemporary Christian music. It flashes on the screen for less than a second. I wonder if that was intentional?

God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Life, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: gospel, Jesus, kingdom of god, love

Stop saying “Christians Aren’t Perfect”

By Jeremy Myers
21 Comments

Stop saying “Christians Aren’t Perfect”

I am so tired of hearing Christians say “Christians aren’t perfect” as an excuse for bad Christian behavior.

The statement can also come out like this:

“Well, the church is a hospital for sick people.”

or

“No church is perfect.”

or

“Christians are sinners too.”

or my favorite of all (*barf*),

“Christians aren’t perfect … just forgiven.”

christians-arent-perfect

These sorts of statements are usually said when you are critical of a church, a church leader, or some other Christian for something they said or did.

If you say that a pastor doesn’t practice what he preaches, or if a church makes poor decisions about how to spend their money, or if a Christian group behaves meanly, arrogantly, or rudely toward some non-Christian group, the response you will often get back is “Well, Christians aren’t perfect.”

Seriously?

What is so hard about saying

“You are right. That was mean. I am sorry.”

or

“That was selfish. I am sorry.”

or

“That was insensitive and judgmental. I am sorry.”

say Im sorryIt is true that everything we need to know in life we learned in Kindergarten, and one of the main things we learned in Kindergarten was the importance of saying we’re sorry to others when we hurt them.

Many of us Christians need to go back to Kindergarten to learn the lesson all over again. When we hurt someone (even if it is unintentional), we need to say “I’m sorry.”

(By the way, apologizing for all the pain we experience in life is one of the things God was doing in Jesus on the cross. Think on it!)

And please, don’t add a “but” to your apology. Don’t say, “I’m sorry, but …”. Grace has no but, and neither do apologies.

And as long as I’m on the subject …

Usually when Christians say, “Well, Christians aren’t perfect either,” they then go on to point out the sin in other people, and if you challenge them on why they can point out sin in the lives of others, they say, “I can’t just overlook sin. Someone has to point out sin in people’s life. If I keep silent, I am condoning the sin.”

I have three things to say against this line of thought.

First, maybe someone does need to point out sin in other people’s life. But that someone is not you. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin (John 16:8). So unless you are a member of the Trinity, you don’t need to point out the sin in other people’s lives.

Second, if you point out sin in other people’s lives, but then justify your own rude sinful behavior by saying, “Well, nobody’s perfect,” what kind of hypocrisy is that? You don’t want other people to justify their own sin, but you are more than happy to justify your own by saying, “Christians aren’t perfect”?

Third, yes, yes, yes, I am falling into the same trap here myself by pointing out sinful behavior in the lives of others instead of just letting the Holy Spirit do it, and yes, maybe my tone here is not that loving or kind toward my sinning Christian brethren who talk rudely and unkindly toward others.

But you know what? You should just let me be mean and rude and angry toward you because, after all, “Christians aren’t perfect.”

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: apology, forgiveness, Theology of Sin, Theology of the Church

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • …
  • 243
  • Next Page »
Join the discipleship group
Learn about the gospel and how to share it

Take my new course:

The Gospel According to Scripture
Best Books Every Christian Should Read
Study Scripture with me
Subscribe to my Podcast on iTunes
Subscribe to my Podcast on Amazon

Do you like my blog?
Try one of my books:

Click the image below to see what books are available.

Books by Jeremy Myers

Theological Study Archives

  • Theology – General
  • Theology Introduction
  • Theology of the Bible
  • Theology of God
  • Theology of Man
  • Theology of Sin
  • Theology of Jesus
  • Theology of Salvation
  • Theology of the Holy Spirit
  • Theology of the Church
  • Theology of Angels
  • Theology of the End Times
  • Theology Q&A

Bible Study Archives

  • Bible Studies on Genesis
  • Bible Studies on Esther
  • Bible Studies on Psalms
  • Bible Studies on Jonah
  • Bible Studies on Matthew
  • Bible Studies on Luke
  • Bible Studies on Romans
  • Bible Studies on Ephesians
  • Miscellaneous Bible Studies

Advertise or Donate

  • Advertise on RedeemingGod.com
  • Donate to Jeremy Myers

Search (and you Shall Find)

Get Books by Jeremy Myers

Books by Jeremy Myers

Schedule Jeremy for an interview

Click here to Contact Me!

© 2025 Redeeming God · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Knownhost and the Genesis Framework