Christianity is Hard (like gangsta Hard)

God is love. You should know that. God loves you more than you could ever love him in a familial sense, in a friendly sense, and yes in a romantic sense. But more than that, He is love. So it's not surprising that out of our new testament/covenant/revelation that we find a love story preached from behind our pulpits. Rightfully so, since He's turned the believers' hearts from stone to flesh. The greatest love story ever told as Christ went to the cross for us literally melted our hearts. With that in mind...consider the following:

1. We are taught that when someone sins against us in the Body, we should confront that person directly. But since we should be so full of God's love should we not instead completely ignore the sin and forgive the trespassing brother without letting him know what he did? I mean, it's not very loving to make someone feel bad...is it?

2. We are taught that God continues to discipline us because we're his children, and that it should hurt pretty bad. But this can't be the same God I learned about so full of love? In light of all the psychological research done in recent years, it makes so much more sense for God to love us even more when we become a bunch of brats. This way the guilt will burn more deeply and bring us to repentence...right? We don't have to use the belt anymore...right, Abba?

3. We are to emulate the character of Jesus the best that we can. Besides, that's what discipleship is--to follow. We know we can never be sinless like him but we need to strive for it. We need to love the way he loves, care the way he cares, be holy as He is holy...however what we should NOT do is go after hypocrites and put them in their place. And even though Jesus was smacking people up in the temple (literally and figuratively), we are not to attempt that since he is a God of perfect judgement in addition to being a God of love. If you feel like you absolutely must point out a hypocrite's gross sin, speak the truth in Love. And what that means is to tell them as politely and nicely as possible that they're a brood of vipers and sons of the Devil. Of course don't use those terms, do it lovingly.

4. We are taught that we aren't worthy of Jesus' love if we love anyone else more than Him, this includes family. In fact there was a young man who asked to follow Jesus but first needed to bury his father. Jesus' response was "let the dead bury their own dead." Translation: "He wasn't a believer, your dad was one of them, in Hell right now, among the dead. If you want to be alive in God's family you shouldn't really give a hoot about those that aren't in our family. I don't care if he raised you your whole life, he wasn't a child of God and therefore no family of yours. Let the other hellbound people bury him." In another book, Jesus clearly says you need to hate your family...let me end the satire here and bring the point home.

For those of you who have ever had problems with that verse, you should be able to clearly see now what is meant by hating your family. If that young man didn't bury his dad, wouldn't it appear to everyone that he hated his own father? Of course. Now let's flip the script. Let's say it's modern Christian times and there was the same guy coming to your church to get the truth. How in the world do you "lovingly" tell that young man that "hey, your dad's probably in Hell, but come follow Jesus anyway." Jesus knew that would be the main issue and he needed it taken care of immediately. That young man needed to show hatred (in a worldly sense) towards his earthly father in order to be in the kingdom. There was no other option. It was going to come out sooner or later.

Here's the approach today's "loving" churches would have taken. They would have probably done one of two things. The first would have been to just ignore the issue and let him deal with it. And once he realizes that his dad is in Hell, he would have become bitter and angry towards God and he would leave the faith (i.e. loving his earthly father more). The second thing is telling him that no one can really know where his father is, heaven or hell. Now what happens? He begins changing the nature of the truth of the Bible and making up his own requirements for heaven. Therefore watering down the truth and making evangelism obsolete in his life.

You need to hate your family. That's what it means. But then the bible says that those who don't take care of their immediate family is worse than an unbeliever. How do you reconcile it? Show them love but understand that when it comes to the faith, you shouldn't give a hoot about maintaining peace in the family and upsetting anyone. Jesus didn't come for peace but division. He told us he was going to break up families. So DON'T try to hold the family together by holding back the truth. They're not your real family anyhow. What's love? Feelings? No! In this sense, love is giving your family a chance to escape the fires of hell. Christianity is hard.

You need to confront false teachers and hypocrites. The bible even teaches that you shouldn't even greet or bid farewell to a false teacher because you would be offering peace with them and in essence agreeing with their heresies. Yet the Bible also mentions that Jesus longed to gather the hypocritical pharisees under his wing like a hen gathers her chicks. He wept for them after he ripped them up in Matthew 23. What's love? Being polite? I don't see that anywhere in 1 Corinthians 13. Don't hold back the truth. How else will they hear if you don't offend them. How will your brother grow to be more holy if you don't offend him with a rebuke for sinning against you. You don't think God still smacks you up? It's done in love. Stop changing the meaning of love to be some hollywood mushy garbage. Christianity is real. Real hard. So join Jesus La Familia and get gangsta with it.