Stand Down Soldier, Stand Down

Why Binkie, there you are in full blown DefCon 3 mode, bible drawn and cocked. All dressed up in the armor of God, manning the trenches against the advancing gay horde and their allies.

Stand down soldier, stand down.

Oh, I know you’ve got this self image to protect. You’re a lean, mean fighting machine straight out of a video game. I’ve seen your paintings of the church militant. Unfortunately what the world sees is more  pimply faced adolescent holed up in his parents basement playing  Assassins Creed on his X-Box with the music of Styxx  pounding in the background.

C’mon now, we have bigger fish to fry. There’s a broken world out there, ready to hear about the love of Christ and you’ve gone and enlisted in a culture war that we were not commanded to wage.  That armor you’re wearing? It’s truth, righteousness, the Gospel of Peace. Its about faith and salvation, not warfare.  Ephesians 6.

So let’s  get back to fishing for men, after all, that’s what Jesus asked us to do. And those two most important commandments He mentioned?  You know, the ones about loving God and our neighbors? Why don’t we give that a shot? Imagine the effect we’d have if we treated gays like human beings instead of abominations.

Let’s treat the least of us with grace and compassion. Apparently when we do, that’s the way we’re treating Jesus. When we don’t it’s not pretty  ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Mathew 25:44-46

When Jesus sent His disciples into the world He told them to “Proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” Mathew 10: 7,8

Now this is important, so listen up. If they were rejected He told them to move on to fresh fields, no staying around trying to force folks to toe the line. No vast legislative efforts to make the outside world look like the church.

Time is short, so move on. If someone doesn’t like your message others will, so move on. This is about salvation, not hand to hand combat.