Snakes and Good People

                A religion professor I had in college once gave a very enlightening lecture about how the modern church has developed its understanding of right and wrong. He drew a picture on the white board of a cliff and said that if someone wondered over the edge of the cliff it was like wondering into a life of sin and you will die. When God gave us the law it was as if He put up a fence at the edge of the cliff and told us not to go over the fence or we would die. Well intentioned, the church told its members that if the fence is on the edge of the cliff then we will build a brick wall ten fee from the edge of the cliff and tell everyone that if they climb over the wall, they will die. Other churches said that was not far enough away so they built their wall even further back. These walls would be made up of things such as: you must come to church every Sunday; you must wear nice close to church (though this is slowly fading out); y

ou cannot drink any alcohol (Baptist); you cannot receive communion until you have officially joined the church (Catholics); you must speak in tongues (Evangelicals); you cannot raise your hands to worship God (traditional Baptist/Catholics); you cannot use drums in music (I forget which denomination this is); you cannot get a tattoo; there are many more but I will run out of room if I try to type them all. These rules may be based off of things in the Bible but they are not rules God has given us to live by, they are rules we have given ourselves.

                In Matthew 23, Jesus gives a very humbling lecture about the Pharisees for making rules beyond the law that God has given them and insisting that others abide by them. If you read chapter 23 you could almost hear Jesus saying the same thing to the modern church. Jesus tells them that they are doing everything to appear good without cleansing their heart from sin. He even says that when they turn others to follow God, the Pharisees make those they convert twice as fit for hell as they are. If the church is guilty of many of the same mistakes as the Pharisees, what is happening to those we convert?

                Sometimes I think that the extra rules our church has developed help us sell the lie that if you are a good person and come to church every week then God will forgive you for your sins. If that were true, there would be no point in Jesus dying on the cross. The well intentioned church has often been guilty of giving the wrong impression of Who God is and what He wants. Although it is not up to me to change the way the church functions, it is up to me to allow Scripture to change the way I function. Even if the church as a whole is guilty of turning someone away from God because they give a bad impression, I am more guilty because it only take one person to paint a picture of Who God really is.

                In light of Matthew 23 I have to wonder, do I hold those around me to standards I myself cannot follow? Do I push people away that are less than my idea of perfect? What am I doing to live a life full of God’s love? How would I change the way I act if I tried to act toward others the way Christ has acted toward me? Who have I ignored or pushed away because I thought I was better than them or because I thought they were better than me instead of breaking down barriers between us? Have I made myself look good while failing to deal with the issues in my heart?

                God, please give me the courage and wisdom to live a life according to the guidelines for right and wrong that You have set before me. Please help me to show Your love to those around me and not to be intimidated by the barriers other people try to put up between us. Please help me not to be guilty of putting up those barriers either. Also please help me to try to live a life in which my heart is pleasing to You. Amen.