Shades of Grey

If you know anything about religion, you probably know that Christians can be a very confusing group of people. Some of them of radical one way or the other either loving or hating everyone, and it seems there is a massive effort to convert the world into their way of thinking. I've been a Christian all my life, and I've gone through quite a few phases of the process of growing within my faith. Through all of this, I've found that a Christian lifestyle is not as black and white as people want it to be. When you actually look at what Jesus did and how he lived, he would go two directions at once that seemed both contradictory but in perfect harmony with what he taught.

For instance, he said to go into all the world and teach the gospel., but he also said if someone won't listen, let them go. No where did he say to scream in that person's face to make them hear the truth. He knew the truth, and he knew that someone has to be receptive, and if they won't listen, there is no need to waste time with that individual. He encouraged the following of the law during his time on earth, but the leaders felt he broke the law all the time. In actuality, Jesus knew the law so well that he knew how to follow the law while simultaneously pissing off the establishment. Did not sin, but showed the Man up.

In our modern world, a common phrase is to love the sinner but hate the sin. This is a concept that most people cannot wrap their head around since it involves accepting someone for who they are regardless of what they do while simultaneously acknowledging that you don't approve of what they do. However, in order to fully live this, it goes quite a bit further than that. It is a matter of accepting that person and who they are whether you agree or not while allowing them to come to their own decisions. If their decisions don't agree with yours, you have to accept this as their own truth because even if they are biblically wrong, you have to ask what Jesus would do. Jesus would let them walk.

It is ok to wish people would come to know the truth of the gospel. It is ok to want them to believe. But it is not ok to forcefeed them or declare their wrongdoings. If you think about your average toddler who won't eat (parents, you know this all too well if your child survived the single digits), if you stand over the child and command that every bite must be eaten, what happens? Nothing. That's what. Three little, non-eating princesses later, I can tell you that the food remains on the plate, tears are had, hair is pulled, fits are thrown, doors are slammed, and once you finally decide to come back out of your room to the child who wonders what just happened, the food remains uneaten as they ask if they can play now. A few swigs of Brandy later, you go ahead and agree while you contemplate whether to just eat their food or throw it to the dog.

People are the same way with the truth. No matter what you do, everyone has their own truth. It is said that perception is reality, and if someone perceives the Christian to be a total nutjob, then guess what? You're a nutjob, and no one will listen to a word you have to say.

How to approach this little problem? With the greatest of subtlety. Jesus spoke to large groups of people without addressing very many individuals. Those he spoke to were receptive to him, and those he rebuked publicly had originally started the conversation. They asked. He answered. What Jesus never did (feel free to correct if I'm wrong here) is walk up to a random stranger, declare their sins without any prompting, and tell them exactly where they were going to go without the truth and his help. Instead, when he declared the truth to a group of his closest followers, most of them left. His apostles wanted to go after them, but he told them to let them go because His truth is a hard one.

Truth is hard. Truth will set you free, but acknowledging any truth is extremely difficult because we don't want to accept it, especially if it makes us look bad. Whatever sins we think people have, we have to understand that their life is their decision, and only by living the Christian lifestyle can we ever hope to influence anyone. We can stand up for the truth when confronted, but we should not condemn anyone (that's anyone) unless they specifically ask us for our help, and even then, they should not receive condemnation but love and guidance.

The greatest commands in the Bible, according to Jesus, are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength," and to "love your neighbor as yourself." In approaching anyone, we have to first decide whether we want to be treated the way we intend to treat someone else. We should also decide whether Jesus would act how we intend to act based on the accounts we have.

Keeping this in mind, go into the world.