"And that is what some of you were." 1 Cor. 6:11.Had I written that rather than Paul it would say such were some of us, and no I won’t tell you which of those things applied to me at one time. This isn’t about me, it’s about US.
How I know that is by reading the rest of the 11th verse "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God." I think we would all agree if we were sinless we wouldn’t need to be in a church, because that’s what a church is for, it’s a spiritual hospital for those who are spiritually sick. Meaning simply that we’ve fallen short of God’s standards. I talked to someone once who felt that if she could remain sinless she would never die.
Someone sent me an email awhile back, and I’m going to paraphrase a short prayer: "Lord I’ve been pretty good today. I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t lusted or coveted. I haven’t said anything I shouldn’t have. But Lord, sooner or later I’m going to have to get out of bed..."
But maybe that wasn’t always the case with God’s people, maybe they had it easier. Because surely the people we read about in the bible were all good upright people right? Some of them are heros of the faith, even earning mention in what’s become known as "The Faith Chapter" Hebrews 11. Well... not so much. I think one of the great things about the bible is that God showed the bad side of some of His people as well as the good side. If I was going to start a religion I certainly wouldn’t. I’d only want people to see the good side of my followers.
But surely SOME of the great people of the bible didn’t have any flaws. What about Abraham, the Father of the Faith? Abraham who’s descendants were more than the sand on the beach. Abraham who had so much faith he was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. Any body ever tried to pass your spouse off as your sibling? Abraham did. I already have 2 sisters thank you very much. I’ve always loved that Jello pudding commercial with Bill Cosby where he’s try to trade a young kid for his pudding. One of the things he offers is "I’ll send your sister to the moon." And the boy replies "I got two sisters." Yeah kid, I understand. Abraham’s wife Sarah must have been very attractive because, while they were traveling, he was afraid that some other man would want her and would kill him to get her. So he told people she was his sister.
Or King David, a man after God’s own heart. Who also committed adultery and then in an attempt to hide what he did, gave orders for her husband to be placed at the front of the battle lines where he knew the husband would be killed. A man after God’s own heart? That’s what it says Acts 13:22
But maybe the women of the bible were better behaved. There’s Rahab who certainly must have been special because she’s in Jesus ancestral line. Only if you ignore the fact that she made a living by selling her body. Ok so maybe we just need to go back further, back to the very beginning, you can’t go back further than Adam. You just can’t be closer to God than Adam was. It says in Genesis 2 that God brought all the animals he had created before Adam so that he could name them. Yeah Adam, who sinned by eating of the one tree in the entire garden he was told plainly not to eat from and then blamed God "The woman YOU gave me, she gave me the fruit and I ate it." Gen.1:12.Adam was quick to blame everyone but Adam.
Yeah but those are all people from the Old Testament, the people in the New Testament weren’t like that, many of them had seen Jesus with their own eyes. How could you walk with Jesus and still sin? People like Peter, remember what an upright guy he was at Jesus trial? "Uh Jesus? No, I don’t know anyone named Jesus." Not once but three times, that Peter?
Most of the letters in the New Testament were written by Paul, some of them when he was in prison for preaching the word. Yeah well, that was only after God got a hold of him because you see at one time Paul was the enemy of God’s people. He had a letter from the governor allowing him to arrest Christians many of whom would end up dead because of their faith.
I heard someone once say that Jesus probably had a red mark on His forehead from smacking Himself every time He thought about His closest followers "They just don’t get it." Theses are all people that we will meet in Heaven when we get there, why? Because we worship a God of second chances.
That certainly wasn’t the God I grew up with. I spent 12 years in Catholic school, one reason that I’m now Presbyterian. That was a God who was punishing, who I was taught was just waiting for me to mess up so He could knock me down. In his book "The Jesus I Never Knew" Philip Yancey quotes George Buttrick, the former chaplain at Harvard University as saying that almost every day at least one student would walk into his office and proclaim that he or she didn’t believe in God. To which he would reply "Tell me what God you don’t believe in, because the chances are that I don’t believe in that God either."
I can’t believe in a punishing God. Does God discipline us? Of course. Heb. 12:5&6 "My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.,because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and punishes everyone He accepts as a son." So yes, obviously God disciplines us, but not to punish but to restore, to make us into what He wants us to be.
I’ve been doing prison ministry for almost two years now, and you would be amazed at the stories I’ve heard people tell about times they ALMOST got arrested. Not from the inmates, from the team members some of whom are ministers.
Occasionally when we go in we have to pass through their metal detector. A machine so sensitive that it hits on my wedding ring, so I walk into a maximum security prison with my hands in the air, thinking the whole time "This is a REALLY bad idea." They’re going to love me after I have my knee replaced.
We need to keep in mind that while we give people the same second chance that God gives them, we also hold each other accountable. I think it surprised quite a few inmates when I explained that in our denomination if I want to have beer that’s between me and God. But...if I got a DUI, I WANT my church and my friends to hold me accountable. To say "If you need help we’ll help you get it, but this ends NOW!" Sometimes when God disciplines us, He uses other people to do it.
The God that I worship is best found in Luke the 14th chapter. We usually refer to it as the parable of the Prodigal Son. A man had two sons, and the younger of the two asks for his inheritance, which he promptly squandered on lose living. A famine hits the place where he is staying and he decides to return to his father, in order to just be able to eat. He admits to his father what he’s done and says that he would gladly live as a hired hand. I know I at least would have given him a lecture and said "I told you so." But instead, he gives him fine clothes to wear, jewelry, kills a calf he has been fattening up, perhaps for his own party and then throws a lavish party. Was the father disappointed? Probably. But he was also welcoming. And that is God’s attitude toward us, He does not approve of our rebellious attitude or our evil deeds. But He welcomes us back and restores us when we confess. And THAT IS the God I worship.
