impleri

It is my belief that Christians today place an emphasis on actions. Something is wrong because the action itself is wrong. Killing is wrong because it is removing another’s life. i don’t think this is a Biblically acceptable notion. In fact, it is outright wrong. Christians focus on the Law and use that as their guide to determine how good or bad a person is. While i have some thoughts on this practice as well, i will not go into it now. i want to focus on actions.
Here is my premise: actions aren’t what make something “wrong.” It is the attitudes that cause those actions. In Mark 7:20-23, Jesus says, “What comes out of a person defiles him.
For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly. All these evils come from within and defile a person.” Here, a typical Christian will interpret these as meaning that the actions come from the heart, and that is correct. But, they will also conclude that these actions in and of themselves are the wrong things. Yet this conclusion has a problem.
It conflicts with the parable of the “rich young man” in that we have an example of a person who has done everything commanded. Even if he did go and give all his money to the poor, he would have failed because it was not the action of giving that would have allowed him to enter the Kingdom. In the movie The Break-up, the female character tells her boyfriend that she wants him to want to do the dishes. That is, she wanted him to love her enough to do the dishes. She probably didn’t care whether or not he actually did the dishes, she cared that he wanted to do them as a way of showing his love for her. Jesus doesn’t want us to fulfill the Great Commission because he told us to; he wants us to want to do fulfill the Great Commission. This is why we see the widow’s offering (Mark 12) as being “worth” more than all of the rich people’s offerings: it was her attitude, not her action that was important.
This can be taken from what Jesus says in Matthew 5:28: “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Notice, it is not the act of adultery that is wrong, but the desire to commit adultery. Throughout this chapter of Matthew (which begins with the “beattitudes” incidentally), Jesus is trying to teach the people that it is not the actions outlawed in the Mosaic Law that is wrong, but the attitudes behind them. Today, many Christians believe drinking is wrong. As a result, being in a bar is considered wrong. Yet, we see Jesus hanging out in bars. It isn’t going to a bar that is wrong, but rather the desire to do wrong that is wrong. Additionally, it isn’t giving to a church that is right, but the desire to help that church grow that is right. There are many people who sit in church pews every Sunday morning who think that their giving $2500 will put them “on the good list” with God. Sorry, that is wrong. In fact, that may do absolutely nothing at all, because “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the
outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
What is all of this coming to? Well, i will suggest that a certain group of people believe it is their duty to expose the evils creeping into the Church. Too often, these people attack others based on their actions without understanding anything. They seek to rip apart anything entering the Church that does not meet their own requirements of “orthodoxy.” This is my statement to them: when you begin to criticize your fellow critics, you have lost sight of the Kingdom. Please return.