Jesus says the most important command of God for us to obey is this, “To love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and to love others.” So for the last few weeks we’ve taken some time to define what this kind of love is. We can summarize our last few lessons this way, “Genuine love is faithful especially in very difficult and painful circumstances and full of joy. It’s impossible to love others and God without making sacrifices. And the only way to really love God and love others is to disown yourself and follow Jesus.”
It’s one thing to define love, but, now that we know what God says it is, the bigger question is, “what do we do this love?” How do we put love into action as Jesus followers. I believe that the best way for us to show love is to do it the way Jesus did. Today we’re going to talk about how to love and share truth with those who are immoral. Hebrews 4:14-16 says, "So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."
Last Sunday we discussed the first part of this Scripture,” let us hold firmly to what we believe” The Bible teaches us that the best witnesses for Jesus to an unbelieving world are followers who hold on to what they believe in every circumstance.
Today we’re going to focus on the second part of this Scripture, "This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all the same testings we do, yet he did not sin." Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead sealed our identity. His victory over death is the proof of our home in Heaven. As Jesus followers we belong to God, we are not our own because we've been bought with the blood and sacrifice of Jesus. This means that our actions are motivated by our choice to deny who we are and to take up the cross of Jesus. We don't help people because they need help, we serve people so we can show them who Jesus is. Everything we do and say is about loving God and others through our faith in Jesus Christ. This is the life of a follower.
I like how the Message translates this, “Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.“ Colossians 4:5-6
Jesus followers don’t point the finger at people who haven't made a decision to disown themselves for the cross of Jesus, because, they don't live by the same standard of morality that we do. According to the Scripture we’re looking at today, we love the unbeliever by holding on to what we believe, and
we love the immoral by sympathizing with their weaknesses because we're all too aware of our own.
Immorality doesn't just have to do with sexual stuff. According to the dictionary the word encompasses anything evil or wicked. So, the bombing in Boston was immoral. The mass killings taking place right now in Syria is immoral. Doctor Gosnell did an immoral thing when he murdered hundreds of infants born alive. And it’s easy for us to point the finger at these particular heinous acts and call them for what they are. And we’re right in doing so, but the reality is that we are all immoral people. The Bible teaches us that it's impossible as human beings to live a perfect life. For example, Jesus taught that it's not just about the act of committing adultery that is sin, it's the lustful thoughts that we entertain in our mind that is like committing adultery. Jesus said that we live by a code of love our neighbor and hate our enemy, but Jesus continues and teaches us that we are to "love our enemies" even pray for them. How would your attitude towards your enemy be different if you consistently prayed for them?
Jesus didn't teach that we are to be perfect creatures. He told us to seek first the Kingdom of God. This is about a lifestyle. We all do immoral things. I can seek Jesus first in my life, I can make the decision every day to disown myself and follow Him, but I will still at times give in to temptation and sin. This happens to all of us. A genuine Jesus follower will be filled with sorrow for the sinful things they do. They will seek a routine of daily accountability and confession. A Jesus follower will repent specifically for the sinful things they do constantly seeking forgiveness from God. This is the humble and careful nature of a Jesus follower. We don’t like sin. We hate it. We hate sin in our life and we hate it in our world. We hate sin, because God hates it. Sin separates us from God, but our repentance brings us closer to Him.
We love the immoral by sympathizing with their weaknesses because we're all too aware of our own.
A Jesus follower does immoral things sometimes, but, a follower also seeks accountability, confession, repentance and humbles themselves before God. James 4:7-10 says, “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.”
There are Christians though who don’t seek first the Kingdom of God, they seek themselves first. They do what they want to do. In this way they are “friends of the world”. Some of these Christians even go so far as to use the Bible to legitimize sin.
I believe the Bible teaches us that we are all sinners. But let’s understand the difference between temptation and sin. I don't sin when I'm tempted, I sin when I engage in a sinful action. Sometimes I find myself outside my car to go somewhere when I realize I left my keys in the house. I can't use the keys unless I have them. Temptation is just like that, as long as it's there I have the key to unlock the sinful behavior. If I don't want to drive my car the solution is to destroy my keys and for my wife to hide hers. But, the reality is, if I really want to drive my car, I'll find a way to get keys. Even if I destroyed my keys because that's how convicted I was that I would never drive my car again; If I really want to I will find a way. I can always go to the dealer and have a new set made.
The point is that temptation is a human problem. We are all tempted. Even Jesus was tempted. Only Jesus didn't sin. But the rest of us do. All of us have keys we carry around that unlock certain sinful behaviors. For those of us who are followers of Jesus we want to lose our keys, but we keep looking for them. We are not above the human condition, we are a part of it.
We love the immoral by sympathizing with their weaknesses because we're all too aware of our own.
We all fall short of God’s perfect standard, we are all sinners who need the mercy of Jesus. We all need the same truth, the same Savior, the same God. God said His Word is the Judge of all human nature; including mine, so I won't argue about it; because what does my opinion mean? Nothing. My truth is in Jesus and in His Word; the only source from which I teach and live, and for that I make no apology. But at the same time, I discover in this very truth that my sinful nature is just as damning as the next guy. And this is why I love His Word, hate my own sin first, and serve others in the Name of Jesus.
Isaiah 5:20 says, “What sorrow for those who say evil is good and good is evil…” Evil is evil as defined by the Bible. Our morality and our standard of purity comes solely from this source. I’m not going to teach that you’re doing a sinful thing, unless the Bible points it out. I don’t want you to point out something in my life you think is sinful unless the Bible specifically points it out.
Today there is a lot of discussion in our churches, communities and government about homosexuality. There are Christians who use the Bible in their attempt to legitimize homosexuality, these Christians are failing to do what the Hebrew writer teaches, "to hold on to what they believe." These Christians are calling evil good and good evil. The best witnesses for Jesus to an unbelieving world are followers who hold on to what they believe in every circumstance. When those who claim to follow Jesus cave to cultural pressure to believe what the world is telling them, they’re no longer witnesses for truth.
Jesus says that marriage is designed for a man and a woman. Even though many families in the Old Testament featured multiple wives and concubines, this doesn’t mean that God designed marriage this way. But I can understand why there would be confusion. If God designed marriage between one man and one woman then why did he bless guys like Solomon? This guy had 700 wives and 300 concubines. In the Old Testament there are 15 examples of polygamy and every single one of these guys was rich and powerful. There isn’t an example in the Old Testament of a poor guy having multiple wives and for good reason. Only the rich and powerful can afford more than one. jk:)
But this doesn’t mean that God condoned this lifestyle. God hates divorce, but, He blesses people who have been divorced. Divorce isn’t God’s design for marriage and neither is polygamy. As Jesus followers we listen to our Teacher. We hang on every word that He says. When the question of divorce and the law of Moses was asked Jesus answered this way, “God made them male and female’ from the beginning of creation. ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” The Bible teaches us that because there is so much sexual immorality in our world that each man should have his own wife and each woman should have her own husband.
I refuse to label people as gay. The labels "gay" and "lesbian" actually come from the 19th century and the definition of sexual identity is a fairly new social science kick-started by the Kinsey Report published in 1948. This label thing is a fairly new development in human history. And I guess labeling people makes it easier to choose a side. This “choose a side” thing in our culture is more about politics than it is about anything else. I just refuse to play the politics of it. In the Bible I can't find one example of God defining someone by who they are attracted to. The Bible doesn't say, "and God created Adam, a straight guy." God doesn't define Adam as anything other than human, so why should I?
Many say that homosexuality is genetic and that is highly probable considering the anecdotal evidence of friends of mine who label themselves gay. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to be labelled gay and live in a society or culture that in general doesn’t support or value them. I found a blog post written by a young man named Ron who is sexually attracted to men but is a Jesus follower. He is choosing to live a celibate life. I have a ton of respect for this guy. This is a sacrifice worth honoring. Ron is a witness, a testimony of what it means to disown yourself to follow Jesus.
How can someone who believes they are gay find a relationship with Jesus Christ if we don’t love them enough to tell them? If the church can’t love all people the way Jesus loves all people then we have failed the mission of Jesus.
We need to discuss homosexuality because of all the talk in our culture about it. Most of it is politically motivated and the argument for gay marriage is about equality. My intention is not to discuss politics. I don't care much about what happens politically. My only purpose in life is to love God and others so that I can share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The world is going to do what it wants to do. The world belongs to itself. Followers of Jesus belong to God so we live the way Jesus tells us to. Our belief in Jesus is not compromised because we hang out with unbelievers. Our belief in Jesus is not compromised if we love homosexuals. We're not compromised if we bless the addicted. Or help a man with a porn problem, or listen to a wife who wants to leave her husband, or hug a teen who lost her virginity. As a matter of fact if we love like Jesus, if we bless others like Jesus, we are living His mission. We hold on to what we believe and we sympathize with the weaknesses of others so that we can bless people around us who need to hear about Jesus.
Jesus says, “love people.” The mission of a Jesus follower is to show Jesus by the way they treat people. Remember if someone hasn’t made a decision to disown themselves and to follow Jesus, they’re not going to care about His teaching on morality or marriage. We don’t need to lecture people about the teaching of Jesus first. We are called to love them first; to bless them in His name, then teach them.
We love the immoral by sympathizing with their weaknesses because we're all too aware of our own.
When we talk about immorality in the church we’re not that comfortable talking about our own immorality, we would much rather talk about all the immorality out in the world. But we all do immoral things.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says that It’s immoral to have sex with someone you’re not married to. It’s immoral to pursue lustful thoughts by staring at pornography on the internet. It’s immoral to gossip, to be greedy, to get high or drunk. It’s immoral to lie, cheat, and steal. . And It's immoral to have sex with someone of the same gender.
A woman was thrown at the feet of Jesus, she had been caught having sex with a man who wasn't her husband. Her accusers said she had been caught in the act and that the law of Moses said to stone her. Jesus said, "Fine, the one without sin should be the first one to throw a rock at her." They left. Jesus turned to the women and said, "Are there any accusers left, didn't even one condemn you?" "nope" She replied, and Jesus said, "then I don't condemn you either, but, you must stop sinning like this."
We can't pick and choose who we want to throw at the feet of Jesus for condemnation, because, we all belong at his feet. And it's to me that he says, "stop sinning." I agree with the Apostle Paul, "This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all."
We love the immoral by sympathizing with their weaknesses because we're all too aware of our own.
Back in the 1800s, the town of Liberal, Missouri was founded as an experiment by an atheist and anti-religion lawyer named George Walser. He bought and donated the land for the town. Religion was not allowed inside the city limits. No church could exist within the city and religious people were encouraged not to live in the community.
What happened was that crime and immorality became so rampant that the city failed and the town finally asked churches to come in and establish a religious base for the moral and legal system of the town. George Walser went from atheist to Jesus follower even writing a book called “The Life and Teachings of Jesus.” Walser concluded in his book, “I wandered in the desert of disbelief, waded in the river of doubt, and in the sands of desolation. But near the end of my life I have found hope. Jesus is the son of God, and the Holy Ghost is the infinite spirit of our maker. We should study the chart which Jesus has given us."
I don’t know who or how George found Jesus, but, I’m guessing that after his failed experiment of an atheist village someone who loved Jesus, loved him and shared Jesus with him.
We love immoral people by holding on to what we believe and sympathizing with the weaknesses of others because we know what our weaknesses are.
