{"id":2558,"date":"2012-10-19T00:05:59","date_gmt":"2012-10-19T07:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=2558"},"modified":"2012-10-18T22:51:04","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T05:51:04","slug":"jesus-loves-sinners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2012\/10\/19\/jesus-loves-sinners\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Loves Sinners"},"content":{"rendered":"

An article in the Los Angeles Times on April 2, 2006 told the story of XXXChurch.com, a ministry outreach to those caught up by pornography. They wanted to have some Bibles printed that had this on the cover: \u201cJesus Loves Porn Stars.\u201d The Bible publisher wouldn\u2019t go along. According to the article, \u201cThe publisher said that while it applauded the outreach to those who make a living off pornography, \u2018the wording is misleading and inappropriate for a New Testament,\u2019 according to a letter the pastors received from the executive in charge of standards at the nonprofit Bible publishing company.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMisleading and inappropriate?\u201d<\/p>\n

Really?<\/p>\n

The Bible publisher would doubtless have had NO trouble with this phrase: \u201cJesus loves sinners.\u201d <\/p>\n

But they, like many Christians, seem to lose their minds if you insert a specific sort of sinner that is loved in place of the generic word. <\/p>\n

\u201cJesus loves rapists\u201d or \u201cJesus loves murderers\u201d or \u201cJesus loves the self-righteous pricks at certain Bible publishers\u201d doesn\u2019t seem as reasonable somehow. <\/p>\n

Why is that? <\/p>\n

Because the radical nature of what Jesus did for us isn\u2019t reasonable. Paul wrote:<\/p>\n

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God\u2019s wrath through him! For if, when we were God\u2019s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:7-10)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus loved us and gave his life for us when we were his enemies. He died for all the people that give us the creeps. He died for those of us who give others the creeps. We can do nothing to contribute to our salvation. But he loves us anyhow.<\/p>\n

It is amazing the number of Christians, even publishers of Bibles, who apparently don\u2019t really believe the gospel message or understand just how uncomfortably radical it is.<\/p>\n

Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) of Topeka, Kansas has made himself notorious by picketing the funerals of gay people with signs announcing that the recently deceased is burning in Hell. He also maintains a website which proclaims that God hates homosexuals. Jimmy Swaggart was preaching and commented, \u201cI\u2019m trying to find the correct name for it . . . this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. . . . I\u2019ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I\u2019m gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I\u2019m gonna kill him and tell God he died.\u201d His audience laughed and cheered.<\/p>\n

People like Phelps or Swaggart will trot out a collection of biblical passages to try to prove that God hates certain people who sin in ways that they find particularly reprehensible. However, the fundamental problem with the use being made of their favorite passages is that every last one of them is being taken out of context, both their specific context in place, as well as the broader context of the biblical revelation.<\/p>\n

They very conveniently ignore what Jesus told us. When questioned about what the greatest commandment might be, Jesus had a very simple answer:<\/p>\n

\u201cLove the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.\u2019 This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: \u2018Love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.\u201d (Matthew 22:37-40). <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus tells those who wonder what the Bible is all about that it all boils down to two things: loving people and loving God. That seems a bit inconsistent with the spin that Phelps and Swaggart would like to put on things.<\/p>\n

A few years after Jesus, the Apostle Paul would write the same thing to a group of Christians in Rome:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, \u2018Do not commit adultery,\u2019 \u2018Do not murder,\u2019 \u2018Do not steal,\u2019 \u2018Do not covet,\u2019 and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: \u2018Love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:8-10)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I believe that any interpretation of the Bible which results in a conclusion contrary to this basic tenant of love is necessarily wrong. No ifs, no ands, no buts. Thus, I believe that suggesting that God hates, rather than loves sinners, creates an absurdity: a contradiction with the very theme of the Bible, as well as Paul\u2019s explicit and inconvenient words that I quoted earlier from Romans 5:6-8, insisting that in fact, God actually loves sinners.<\/p>\n

The Apostle John also had some clear words that he wrote to some Christian friends of his:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone says, \u2018I love God,\u2019 yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.\u201d (1 John 4:20-21)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some will try to tell me, I suppose, that John\u2019s words mean that we are only supposed to love our brother. And who is, our brother? Those who believe like us, of course. <\/p>\n

I would suggest that those who believe that narrow definition of \u201cbrother\u201d are exactly like the expert who, in response to Jesus\u2019 suggestion that he should love his neighbor asked \u201cwho is my neighbor.\u201d Jesus\u2019 response was the well-known story of the Good Samaritan (see Luke 10:25-37)<\/p>\n

The problem for us moderns is that Jesus\u2019 story of the Good Samaritan doesn\u2019t really resonate with us. What is a Samaritan, anyhow? Samaritans were apostates from Judaism. They were the result of mixed marriages between Jews and pagan idolaters who had moved into Palestine during the period of the Babylonian captivity. They were forbidden the ability to worship in the temple and so had to make do with their own shrine. The religious establishment despised them and pronounced them horrible, irredeemable sinners.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s update things. If Jesus were asked the same question today, his response would be to tell the story of how a Baptist preacher and a famous televangelist ignored the rape victim in the gutter, in contrast to the good gay, black transvestite from San Francisco who helped her.<\/p>\n

\tIf Christians are going to hate the gay community, then they need to be consistent and hate the liars, the backbiters, the gossips, the hypocrites, and themselves, too. Maybe they should put up a few pickets around the neighborhood supermarket that caters to all those gluttons. <\/p>\n

\tBut maybe I just don\u2019t get it. Maybe there is something wrong with me so that I simply don\u2019t understand why certain sins get singled out for special condemnation, while others are not. Maybe I should recognize that only certain sins are useful for fund raising, while others aren\u2019t. Admittedly, I can see that it would be hard to get Christians motivated to march in the streets against sloth.<\/p>\n

Me, I think if we\u2019re going to start picking on a specific sort of sinner, then we can\u2019t stop there. We need to pick on them all. <\/p>\n

But Jesus died for sinners. He didn\u2019t come to pick on them. How did John put it? \u201cFor God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.\u201d (John 3:17)<\/p>\n

All of us are sinners (when was the last time you walked on water?), and that\u2019s what we\u2019ll all be\u2014every last one of us\u2014till the day we die. Are certain sinners irredeemable? Whosoever will may come, but wait, if you\u2019re gay, you\u2019ve got to clean up your act first? But you gossips and gluttons, come right on in? Since when has the church become an exclusive club? Are we supposed to have bouncers at the door making sure everyone has a tie and that they\u2019re \u201cthe right sort of people\u201d before we let them in?<\/p>\n

Maybe I just don\u2019t understand the gospel and the mission of the church. But I don\u2019t think so. I think it\u2019s the haters\u2014those who demonize certain sinners\u2014that just don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n

I was reading in my newspaper recently about some pastors standing outside the courthouse and protesting against gays getting married, reading Bible verses at them, and denouncing both those who went in to get married, as well as the government officials who were doing the marrying.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a bit puzzled as to how this condemnation is part of the Great Commission. How does this lead to the evangelism of these particular sinners? In the past, Christians persecuted Jews and Moslems. Now Jews and Moslems are the two most difficult groups to reach with the gospel. For some odd reason people that feel your hatred and get persecuted aren’t much interested in what you’ve got to say about your religion after that. So why do so many people who call themselves Christians not catch wise? (and, you know, actually practice what they claim to believe?)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m wondering what Paul would think about it all. Perhaps he would say, \u201cWhat business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?\u201d (1 Corinthians 5:12)<\/p>\n

It also seems to me that Jesus\u2019 approach with sinners was somewhat different than how these Pharis\u2014um, preachers and their followers\u2014are operating. In fact, I seem to recall that Jesus saved his venom for people who were doing just the sort of things the preachers like Phelps (and many others) are doing (Matthew 23 comes to mind).<\/p>\n

Why are so many modern Christians more like the Pharisees than like Jesus?<\/p>\n

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An article in the Los Angeles Times on April 2, 2006 told the story of XXXChurch.com, a ministry outreach to those caught up by pornography. They wanted to have some Bibles printed that had this on the cover: \u201cJesus Loves … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2558"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2560,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2558\/revisions\/2560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}