Why do we slay one another?
What are we doing to each other?
Why are we not linking arms together in this fight?
We're in this together!
The enemy is picking us apart!
We are picking each other apart!
The setting in Arthur Miller's, Crucible, was the Salem witch trials of 1692. Miller used these witch hunts to draw a parallel to McCarthyism in the 1950's. In both cases whether it be paranoia of witches or paranoia of communism, people were found brutalizing one another for unfounded reasons.
What about Christians brutalizing one another in the church?
We set ourselves up as gods judging and critiquing how the object of our obsession should act, live, love or "follow Jesus" better. We see minor faults and move in for the kill...slaying our brothers and sisters in Christ...friendly fire...only not so friendly. It could even be a simple glance, a miss-spoken word or even worse, someone actually sinned! They actually did something wrong....messed up...stumbled and fell!
Now we've really got reason to nail them to the cross! Oh and just to make sure, let's call up a friend and gather up some ammo and make sure there's nothing left of our offender! Let's make sure there is nothing left of our offender's character. Let’s make sure there’s no hope of restoration. Oh it’s gonna feel so good! It's gonna make us feel so good about our own filthy rags of righteousness as we discuss the intimate details of their inadequacies!
I was having coffee with a friend a few days ago and this subject came up. Why do we slaughter each other in the church, and worse yet why do we slaughter those that don't know Christ but might actually want to? Why do we make it so difficult for the homosexual, the sexually immoral, the drug addict, and the "not-so-perfects" to sit in our pews? Ya know, the ones that might actually need him?
The two of us had several ideas (I'm sure there's many) but after thinking about it a little more, I believe I've discovered the core issue...
Lack of depth....our walks are shallow.
If we were consumed with Christ, with our affection fixed on Him, enamored by His presence and entrenched in His word, then the faults of others would pale in importance. They wouldn't stand a chance vying for our attention. Our attention would be locked on to the one who is locked onto us...the one who is in love with us. The only attention we would give to the shortcomings of others would be to allow it to remind us and call us to repentance, in our realization of our own sins, and intercession to hold up those who are falling.
I love it when Job said the lord will perfect that which concerns me. The lord will perfect that which concerns us. We are the lord's workmanship…not each other’s. Sometimes I wonder if our shallowness breeds boredom, and our boredom breeds gossip, slander and judgment. I wonder if our emptiness and lack of depth in our relationship with God breeds a fleshly desire to raid the lives of our fellow Christians. Instead of getting away with god and peering into His mysteries we are busy getting away with gossip buddies and peering into the personal failures of others.
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