10 minute read
Confusing Times
By: Kathryn Barattini, Communications Specialist
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THERE IS A LOT of general confusion in the world right now. So many people are making arguments that sound good. After all, most people want to do the right thing. Almost no one wants to be a hater. The problem is that the words some people use can be deceptive and manipulative. If you would like to avoid being manipulated, it’s good to try a little language experiment to see if an argument holds. What if we substituted the word “fire” for many of the common and impassioned arguments we hear today, and see if they still make sense?
Fire is good. It warms. It cooks. It purifies. It’s beautiful. It has so many uses. How can something as good as fire even be “misused?” How can using something as good as fire ever be used “immorally?” You fire haters can’t tell me how to want to stand in the middle of it and let it consume me. It’s my body! Who are you to tell me that’s “wrong?” I want to merge with fire! I AM fire because I choose to be! Of course, in reality, I’ve always been free to burn myself to ashes. What I want is for you to cheer me doing it. I want everyone to celebrate it! I want to establish self-burning holidays. I want facilities on each corner to provide for everyone’s selfburning needs. How can you even use ANY fire without thinking ALL fire is good? Hypocrites! How dare you! How dare you be filled with such HATE that you refuse to cheer while I burn?
Now some could argue that this is not a fair comparison because everyone knows that we should not hurt our bodies, express my fire love! I LOVE fire. I want to be one with it. I and we should not. However, is not protecting the soul infinitely more valuable than the body? Jesus, Himself, expresses this very idea, when He uses startling language to get us to see just that:
“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are it is better that you lose one of your members than that your well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I whole body go into hell. Matthew 5:29-30 (ESV) came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:15-17 Jesus does not want us to self-mutilate our bodies, but He Tax collectors and sinners: And as he reclined at table in his (ESV) does want us to see that our souls are the most important of And again, tax collectors and sinners: Now the tax all! But how do we know what is right and wrong for our collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. souls? We know by God’s word and the doctrinal teaching And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This of His Church: man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, Matthew 16: 18-19 “Jesus ate with for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy But what about the arguments that in heaven over one sinner who repents sound so convincing—the ones that seem to use the Bible’s own words to them to meet with than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:1-7 justify their arguments? One of these you may hear a lot is that “Jesus ate them where they (ESV) with sinners!” Yes, He did. But he did it to call them away from their sin! were and then Jesus ate with them to meet them where they were and then call them Every story in the Bible is an example away from sin—not to condone or of this: call them away tolerate them in their sin! Another commonly misused verse is about the Zacchaeus: He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, from sin - not woman accused of adultery: there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was to condone or The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in rich. And he was seeking to see who adultery, and placing her in the midst Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was tolerate them in they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree their sin.” Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you to see him, for he was about to pass say?” This they said to test him, that that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19 1-10 (ESV) “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” John 8: 3-11 (ESV) house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Now of this, some will surely say, “See! See! Everyone sins! Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed Jesus doesn’t condemn her!” In this instance, Jesus turns the him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that Pharisees’ trap back upon them so they cannot stone the he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his woman, and indeed He does not condemn her; however, disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” he follows His forgiveness by saying “go and sin no more!”
He forgives and then tell her not to persist in her sin. The blind hypocrisy of the Pharisees is wrong, and so is the sin of the woman—Jesus embraces neither! This example leads us to probably the most misused quote in the Bible, used to justify why we are not supposed to call any behavior sinful: do not judge. The actual verse is: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7: 1-5 (ESV)
This teaching is warning against hypocrisy in judging. How can we tell others to not steal if we, ourselves, steal every day? The very verse ends with how we should act: first make sure that we are following God’s will and then we can offer advice to others. This verse does not mean that we are not allowed to say that anything is wrong! The Bible is full of teachings about how to help others follow God’s will in Christian charity:
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Matthew 18: 15-17 (ESV)
Even secularists who claim there is no right or wrong, that there is no objective truth, don’t agree with their own argument—if they did, then there would be no such thing as being “politically correct” or “cancel culture” or believing the “wrong” way. The secularists just want the power to determine what is right or wrong, but it is not theirs to have nor is it ours. Only God can determine what is right or wrong, and He has…in His Word and the doctrine of His Church. Christ warned His followers that the world would oppose them for supporting His will: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5: 11-12 (ESV)
The darkness hates the light because light is what allows all to see clearly. The light chases away the shadows. The will of God is the light. Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 (ESV)
Don’t be confused by word tricks! The deceptions are many and are everywhere. Remember, you are never a hater if you follow the One who is love itself! You are not filled with hate if you refuse to cheer while others set themselves on fire! This “support” is the opposite of loving your neighbor! What kind of “love” wants what is bad for another?!
So, take heart—for the battle may be fierce, but already it is won:
Kathryn Barattini is a communications specialist and author in Benton, Louisiana.
