It is easy to see the black and white of violence against Christians, the world condoning same-sex marriage and abortion, scientists seeking to use their gifts to undermine faith. Heavy-handed evil is easy to see. But many Christians eschew their daily lives of devotion and works of love in lieu of protesting and reasoned argument, for anger and offense against the world. But the Gospel is not delivered lovingly at high volume. Nor is it reasoned with or approached by reason. It is not an argument, it is a statement. Where it is not received, the disciple leaves, he does not resist evil, he does not stand and insist. Most of all, he does not judge, he loves.

When we are drawn, by good intentions, by sincere desire to do right to join with fellows believing in a single-kingdom, who believe that can be persuasion, argument, and court decisions in support of God and His Church, our eyes are drawn away from the Cross of Christ and, instead, we judge and we condemn with a hollow “hate the sin, love the sinner.” This amounts to no more than a fig leaf on the underlying rage.

Certainly we rely on the gifts he gives us but we look to enforce rather than let the Spirit work to call those who are lost if only because we insert our words, our ways, and our notions into the process. In this country, we speak in terms of rights, not gifts. We value our political freedoms to the detriment of our slavery to Christ if we would compromise our doctrine to have fellowship with Christians who claim that their faith is an act of personal will, not a creation of the Holy Spirit – that Christ’s atonement is not complete until the person chooses salvation. Our witness is tainted by our fellowship and the values we assert in protesting and arguing. We become focused on the sins of the world, their punishment, their condemnation and of legalistic conformity. This is a faith of the world, not a faith in the world.

If our joy is in the Cross of Christ, then we see the need of our suffering neighbor to be forgiven for his sins. We see that he needs a change of life, a change of heart, not a change of earthly law or an enforced public morality. True freedom is joyful discipleship having been called to repentance the Law God gave us, forgiven by the unmerited Grace God gives us, justified by the Faith that God creates in us. All that God has given us, even the Law that shows us our sin is to free us from bondage of sin. The greatest threat to a Christian, the greatest lure away from Christ is the weight of the world’s sin and desire to take it on and defeat it on it on the world’s terms and not with the love and forgiveness that God has given us the authority to loose on the world in His name.