A thought by
Larry Osborne, (2009-04-04) from his book, Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith
(Kindle Location 890). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to
Amazon.com to buy the book.)
A lot of
people are very critical of people who choose a church based on what it can do
for them.
Larry says,
“To my thinking, these consumer Christians are the modern-day equivalent of the
crowds that followed Jesus. They’re fickle. They flock to the latest and
greatest. Many of them don’t get it. Many will abandon ship at the first sign
of hardship. While these are hardly admirable traits, they are remarkably
similar to the traits found in the people Jesus had compassion for and doggedly
pursued for the full three years of his public ministry.”
That’s
true. He goes on, “The sinners that Jesus
so famously liked to hang around were not hard-core pagans who had never been
exposed to God’s Word. The prostitutes, tax collectors, and others who so
irritated the Pharisees were almost exclusively Jews who knew the ways of God
but, for whatever reason, chose not to follow them.”
Larry goes
on, “The thin-the-herd crowd wants us to write these people off as unworthy of
our time, energy, or compassion. They want us to focus instead on the hard-core
pagans rejected by the church and society. But we can’t redefine the ministry
of Jesus so that it fits our paradigm. If we want to reach out to sinners like
Jesus did, then our list of approved sinners will also have to include the carnal,
cultural, and consumer Christians who populate our pews.”
“Our
ultimate goal can be nothing less than full obedience to everything Jesus
taught. It’s the only way we can fulfill the second half of the Great
Commission. But our attitude toward people who struggle and even ignore what
they already know needs to be aligned with the compassion and ministry of Jesus
rather than the disdain, disgust, and exclusivity of the Pharisees.”
He loves us all, doesn’t he?
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