With the recent fiasco of the “rapture” and the world coming to end May 21st, many Christians are disappointed! I feel anger and disappointment toward the false prophets and the lies of Satan. I can’t imagine how Paul must have felt with the Jewish Christians when they tried to spread lies about him and the gospel in Galatia!
With this in the back of my mind, I noticed an article in the Christian Chronicle that caught my eye. They were reporting on a preaching school. Now this preaching school has a reputation of legalism and judgmentalism.
As I thought about Harold Camping (May 21 rapture guy) and this school of preaching I was reminded of the extremes we deal with in 21st century America. Those who are crazy out there and don’t seem to even read their Bible and then those who add to the Bible making up laws that God never spoke! How do you deal with this situation? Is there a seperate way to handle each? Is there a seperate message for each individual case?
It is obvious that both sides of this coin need different help, but Paul spoke about the Christian’s response. In Eph. 4, we are challenged to “make every effort” to keep the unity of the Spirit. Paul follows v. 3 by saying there are 7 things that unity us! Just a few more verses down, I feel he gives us the “secret formula” for handling these extremist and dealing with the problems that we face on a daily basis. Paul tells the church to “speak the truth in love” in v. 15! There is TRUTH. Jesus Himself said He was in fact The Truth (Jn. 14:6). We don’t compromise the truth, but through that anger and frustration with the legalist and liberals, we are called to be people of LOVE!
Jesus said they would know we are his disciples if we love one another. It’s easy to mock Mr. Camping, the Chronicle, Baxter and others, but the Godly response is loving them and return to the Word. There are things in the Bible that most will probably never agree on, but Paul finishes Eph. 4:15 by saying if we will speak the truth in love, we will all grow up into One Head, Jesus Christ!
