When it comes to religion there are few things that we fight
over more than doctrine. A thousand years ago Christians died for their
doctrine while today Christians kill for their doctrine. I’m interested in
being right! I don’t want to live my life in error but I can’t ditch Bible
principle for Bible principle. All the doctrines of the scripture are pieces
that make up the whole puzzle but often times we pick and choose pieces that we
like while throwing away other essential pieces in order to beat our brothers
to the finish line. There is a key doctrine that all doctrine hinges on and it
makes most Christian’s skin crawl to even talk about it. It’s the doctrine of
love!
Have you ever dreamed of sitting down with Jesus and asking
Him what the most important commandment in the Bible was? Or maybe even the
most important, top two? Well, somebody beat you to it and here is the answer
Jesus Christ our Lord gave. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and
great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” See,
and you thought I was kidding when I said all doctrine hinged on it. You have
it right out of the mouth of Christ that loving God with EVERYTHING you are and
loving your neighbor with the same tender care, admiration and regard as you
have for your own self is the key to all of the Bible’s principles! Can you
just imagine sitting down with Jesus and saying, “Lord, that guy I used to hang
out with turned out to be a compromiser but I sure showed him! I don’t even
call and talk to him any more!” Boy, we are really standing aren’t we…
I Corinthians 13:1-3 (KJV) “Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a
tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all
my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not
charity, it profiteth me nothing.”
My, how those words sting! Do you ever wonder why, even
though you walk a straight line, live a sacrificial life, dedicate all your
free time to service and study and prayer, and are faithful to church every
time the doors are open, that you still haven’t found that “rest” and “peace”
and “joy” that the scriptures speak so flagrantly of? Sometimes I think we’ve
gotten so bent on STANDING that we’ve forgotten how to walk! We wonder why we
can’t get people interested in coming to church with us and why, when they do
come, they race to their cars after service and it’s because people can tell
the difference between someone loving them and someone trying to “fix” them.
God help our wicked arrogance!
I Corinthians 13:4-8 (KJV) “Charity suffereth long, and is
kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not
behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh
no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity
never faileth…”
It’s difficult to convince the world that we are a people whose
entire existence revolves around a rebirth through love and forgiveness when
those are the two commodities we dispense to others in such stingy portions. Oh,
sure, we love our church family, that is, until they say something we don’t
agree with or do something to hurt us. We love that church down the street from
us but they’ve got so many problems that we don’t even bother praying for them,
in fact, we are happy at how they are failing! We love our lost family members
but they are just so wicked that we can’t go around them. We love those people
who have left our church but we are just sure they missed God’s will and don’t
mind discussing it since they aren’t around to hear us. We love those backslid
Christians that fell by the way so much that we just can’t wait for them to
encounter God’s judgment so we can say “I told you so!” We love those people
that did us wrong but that doesn’t mean we have to smile or wave when we pass
them in town! I mean, after all, God understands how wronged we are and,
besides, we’d be compromising if we reached out to those sorry rascals! Like
little children anticipating Christmas, we can’t wait for judgment day in
Heaven so everyone can see how wrong they were and how right we were!
Oh, we are straight as an arrow, alright, but we are stuck
fast in a dead tree a long ways off from the mark God aimed us at. If we had
just half of the discernment we claimed to have we would KNOW how much all
those people around us needed to be loved. When Jesus spoke He preached
doctrine! He was a Man of doctrine because He is the God of doctrine! Ever
wonder why the Bible tells us that they were “astonished” by His doctrine? My
guess is that because while they were living in a culture driven by bondage, oppression
and crooked religious hierarchy Jesus was teaching “For God so LOVED the world
that He GAVE…” Funny how loving and reaching out are inseparable. God help us
not to forget love. God help us not to forsake doctrine. We can stand without love but not for very long...
I Corinthians 10:12 (KJV) "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."
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