We routinely disobey Christ Jesus when he stated in Mark 12:31 that the second greatest commandment was to “Love your neighbour as you love yourself.” Instead we condemn those around us for their every thought when in reality we are just as bad for our lack of love and compassion to the very people we judge. As our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 7:5 “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus showed how the father loves His sons. One cashed in his inheritance and left home for the high life. Eventually he ran out of money and finding himself in the pig pen feeding the hogs contemplated how even the servants in his father’s home were better cared for than he was in his challenging fall from grace. That said he prepared a statement to lay on his father when he returned that went something like “Dad I’ve been a fool.” I can’t expect your forgiveness but I’m prepared to be a servant and to work for you as hard as I can.” “If you’ll have me.” Well his father saw him coming across the fields and rejoiced. He instructed his servants to put together a feast of celebration and to cloth his returning son in a fine robe. The prodigal tried to perform his speech but his father was having none of it and welcomed him back into the family.
His brother who had managed the property with his father wondered what the commotion was all about. When he found out that the feast was for his brother then he was beside himself with resentment and rage. His father came to him to try to calm him down and bring him inside to enjoy the celebrations. The angry brother vented his anger and disdain upon his father. Complaining that his father had never so much as given him a small goat to share with his friends. The father couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He told the man “You are not a servant you are the son. Everything that I have is yours and always has been.”
You see both of the young men misunderstood the relationship they had with their father. They were not servants but rather they were sons. The prodigal thought that having left the family business and taking his inheritance put him outside the fold. But his father knew that this could never happen and welcomed him home with great joy. A son and never a servant. He could never earn his way back into his father’s good graces because he could never have left them in the first place. Regardless of what he had done.
The other son thought that he was a servant and that he had to earn his position in the family business. Not realising that he was the son and heir. He had only to ask his father and nothing was beyond his reach. He was a beloved child even though he had never realised it.
So you see we Christians are the beloved children of God our Father. We may not realise it but God loves us with all of His being. Anything we desire we need only ask. We have to be humble and walk in the Spirit. However, never forget, you and I, if we are Christians we are a part of a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation, a People for God’s own possession. It is essential that we treat each other with love and patience not judgement and condemnation. We are family of the Living God, Yahweh Elohim.
Part of understanding being a Christian is to know that we belong to God but we are also under constant attack from the forces of the enemy. The aim of Satan is to mess Christians up so badly that you won’t be able to tell them from non Christians. They’ll be judgmental, uncompassionate and generally not great people to spend time with. If the devil has it his way he wants to discredit us completely so that no one will listen to a word we have to say and everyone will have a bad Christian story.
We have to up our game and understanding how that might work brings us back to the great commandments again. The first “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind and all of your strength.” The second great commandment being “Love your neighbour as you love yourself.” So if you love Yahweh and spend time in communication (prayer), with Him and you love your neighbour as you love yourself. Then there is a much better prospect of successfully defeating the devils strategy to discredit Christians.
You see time spent with God will bring you closer to understanding how much He loves mankind. Which will in turn, help you to understand how to love your neighbour as you love yourself. To my mind we need to stop looking as others as heathen and look at them as fellow men. A bit like looking at all Israelites as a part of the nation of Israel even though many may not be practicing Jews. We need to look at the lost as our brothers and sisters who have a broken relationship with God but know that as Christians we can help them with that.
So what is a Christian and where can we find them. A Christian is simply a person who believes on Jesus Christ. That our Lord and Saviour carried our sins on the Cross at Calvary and paid the price for those sins. That they might be forgiven and have eternal life. These flawed and yet justified people called Christians are all through society.
So if you’ve had a bad experience with Christians. Remember that they are still just people who still sin and make mistakes. One of those mistakes can be that they don’t remember that they are not without sin this side of glory. So you may need to cut them some slack when they get all self righteous and judgmental. Never forget though that you need to be concerned about your own sin and where you are going when you pass from this life. Do you have an eternal destiny with Christ Jesus? A hope of Salvation?
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