Reckless Righteousness or Repulsive Rebellion?

  

I'm feeling compelled to call out some behavior that the Lord opening my eyes to. I'll warn you – this blog is not to create the "warm fuzzies".

I feel like there's two drastically different norms sweeping through the Christian community:  a) legalism b) rebellion.

I need to be honest – this is really getting under my skin. The more I wrestle with this and pray about it; the more perturbed I become. There's absolutely a balance between accountability and being judgemental/condemning of others. But isn't there also a call on our lives to sharpen, challenge and compel each other to press in closer to Christ?

Legalism:
the judging of conduct in terms of strict adherence to precise laws. — legalist, n. — legalistic, adj.

Basically, a whole bunch of people that think God will be forevermore upset with us if we don't adhere to all the religious laws that, um…they've come up with.

Examples:
*drums have no place in the church – they're just noise makers!
*playing cards is sinful
*watching movies is sinful
*if I don't read a specific version of the Bible, then I'm really just learning "trash"
*I have to pray for a specific amount of time or read my Bible for a set amount of time before God shows up
*spiritual gifts don't really exist – God is good, people stink.

I'm tired of seeing legalism and politics cripple the body of Christ. It's like putting handcuffs on and then trying to solve a puzzle….you're just constricting yourself from using the resources you've been given in order to accomplish the goal.

Sermons shouldn't be based on not offending tithers. People shouldn't withhold tithes because the sermon ticked them off. Legalism is the heart of motives that are self-fulfilling and a way of making people pay restitution for their behavior. THERE IS NO GRACE IN LEGALISM. Legalists use guilt as a means of getting people to comply.

                                                         That's **NOT** who God is!

 

Grace abusers aka: rebellion:

the group of believers who wallow in their sin and believe God ultimately wants them to just “enjoy life”.

 This group of people are exhausting to me. There is such a fine line between freedom and rebellion and instead of staying clear of it, grace abusers allow freedom and rebellion to become synonyms. What a farcicality!   I think it's easy to lose sight of exactly what it is we're trying to accomplish.  Are we trying to prove to the world that being a Christian isn't about being uptight or are we trying to live in such a way that DEMONSTRATES the love that permeates our hearts?    Are we living in such a way that people can't help but acknowledge how majestic and revolutionary the power of Christ is or basically being the new "hippy" movement of believers that declare it's all about us?

There has to be a balance between these two extremes.  If declaring our own rules is legalism and abolishing all righteous living is rebellion…then the middle ground to that has to be santification (to be in a process of purification).  Essentially…we're a work in progress but we're striving to be more like Jesus and less like the rest of the world.
 

Yes, God wants us to experience life in such a way that it would push us past the confines of legalism and social/political agendas.
         He wants us to go into all the world and leave that place forever changed.
To abolish indifference and injustice.
      To bathe in an ocean of His grace and forgiveness.
            To punch Satan in the face when he tries to condemn us to a lifestyle of defeat and condemnation.
                                                         TO BE RADICAL!

 

But let's be clear…the Lord desires us to be radical disciples. That means that we are always allowing ourselves to be refined and learning to be obedient to His voice in our lives. That means learning and practicing how to say “no” to ourselves and “yes” to Him. How can we claim to be radical disciples if we are abusing the freedom He allows us to live in?

 

If the God of the universe created us to long for eternity and created us to be relational so that we would learn to become dependent on Him…how is it okay to live in a way that says, “I answer to no one.”?

 

God doesn't want us to get comfortable and complacent, duh. However, does He really desire for us to live in such a way that people feel uncomfortable and even repelled by our behavior?

 

God loves us inspite of our crappy ways; it's true. He accepts us where we are. He lavishes us in grace. But He doesn't want us to just be content to stay there.

 
Maybe we need to get a little less passionate about holding our fists in the air declaring freedom from "rules" and a little more passionate about locking those fists together and praying for freedom for the world.

 

Jesus was radical…but He was more concerned about the spiritual condition of the people around Him than what made HIM feel good.

I want to live my life in such a righteous freedom that it wrecks the world's perception of love…how about you?