Faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.

1 Cor 13: 1-13

Just the other day I was in church listening to a message by Dennis Burke. I just love his preaching. I never fail to get new found revelations and find my faith renewed each time he stops by to share the gospel. Anyway, during his message that day he touched upon how many people seem to find true love and friendship outside the church rather than within its walls. The story was about this former gang leader who was now a believer in Christ and attended church regularly. The point of the story is that often times the former gang leader found more loyalty and camaderie (read:love) from his former members of the gang than from the members of the church he was in. It reached to the point where no one would even bother to return his calls or have communion with him. His gang members would stand shoulder to shoulder with him if he got into any trouble (even if the trouble was of his own doing) and even to the extent of laying down their very lives for his cause if necessary. Meanwhile his fellow brethren in church felt him beneath them and treated him with disdain because of his underworld past and connections.

As a believer, I can attest that his experience is not an isolated case or a departure from the norm. As a christian it can sometimes be embarrassing to admit that the ones with their noses in the air and who exhibit un-christian traits are in actual fact... *gulp*... Christians.

We have all been spoken down to, made to feel insignificant by holier-than-thou christians. It happens in the churches and it happens in our daily lives. We make others feel inferior just because they serve a different God. We tell them that their setbacks and misfortunes are because they lacked faith, did not read their Bibles enough or say their prayers well to be delivered from the curse. We make non-believers feel like they do not belong until after they accept Christ as their personal Saviour and Lord. We put up this fake front when there are newcomers to our church. We show them the kind of love they can expect in the Body of Christ if they become one of us. However that facade fades away once they accept Christ and become full fledged members of our church. We then get them to do the same to other newbies. The cycle continues.

We seem to treat people different from ourselves as lesser beings.

In my walk with Christ many times I found myself being conflicted when encountering my fellow brethren. They seem to preach a gospel different from the one found in my Bible. I had numerous run-ins with so called men of God who preached an exclusive Gospel where you are either in or out of grace and fellowship. I had one pastor tell me that that my devotion to God was dependent on how I dressed to attend church! Another gave me a tongue lashing for sharing with other believers about Creationism (the so called evolution vs creation argument). It seems that church more often than not is about keeping up appearances and outward behavior. We want to appear above reproach and want our members to show the 'sinful world outside' how good and moral we are. The fact is our righteousness comes from Christ sacrifice at the cross that cleansed us from our sin and not because of how holy we are. (another blog for another day!)

No one wants someone with a criminal record in their congregation it seems. If my bible serves me correctly Jesus himself spent more time with the poor, the sinners and the common people than he ever did with the rich and the self-righteous. In fact he never turned away anyone who came to him. The only ones he had trouble with were those who felt they were too moral and upright to interact with his flock. In fact those self righteous ones were the ones who brought false charges against their Messiah and had him cruelly treated and ultimately nailed to a cross at Calvary. The irony of it was that Jesus was crucified between two thieves and Jesus told one of them in his darkest hour that 'today you will be with me in Paradise'.

And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Matthew 9

I am not here to say that all christians are bad. I have many brothers and sisters who truly live the christian life and it shows. What I am addressing here are the church goers and church leaders who preach love and grace yet do not show love and grace to their fellow human beings (believers and unbelievers). I have often spoken to unbelievers about my faith and it seems many of them see us as proud and aloof. We seem to have this superiority complex that turns off many from joining our churches. They much rather go to hell than be amongst wolves and snakes!

Even with fellow church members I have had falling outs because these members follow their pastors rather than God. It is almost like their pastors words supercede anything contained in God's own Holy Word. I understand the pastors are anointed by God to lead their church and are but human and are fallible as we all are. But surely we are not like lemmings jumping off a cliff after the leader. We just follow our leaders without paying heed to the higher law of the Bible which is what the pastor is supposed to preach anyway.

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another

John 13:34,35

As in Spiderman, 'with great power; comes great responsiblity'. Christians should examine their actions and consider the implications of how we behave towards one another and to those outside our doors.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

We should lift those that fall. Encourage those that fail. Strenghten those who are weak. Love those who are lost.
*puffed chest*

Although this is not all I can say on this subject I will stop here or else we will be here all day...