Is Christianity ultimately about being right? Or is it about
following Jesus?
See, if Christianity is about being right then it's easier
to justify cutting off those people you don't agree with. Because, if you see
Christianity as a quest for “rightness” then being wrong is the greatest sin of
all.
However, if you see Christianity as following Jesus, then
being right is less important than the quality of your relationship with Him.
Relationships are messy. They’re not about correctness, or
accuracy. No one measures their relationships in such terms. Instead, we gauge
the health of our relationships based on how open our communication is, and how
honest we can be with one another, and how much time we spend together.
Jesus also connects our obedience to His commands with our
love for Him. It’s all through the Gospel of John, especially in John 14.
He also equates our love for Him with how we love one
another. If we love one another as He has loved us – which is one of His
commands – then we are loving Him by our obedience, and by being obedient we
are loving others, too.
Elsewhere, Jesus connects our horizontal relationships with
our vertical one towards God. He tells us that we should go and reconcile with
our brother before we return to complete our acts of worship. And the Apostle
John pushes it further by saying that if we claim to love God but don’t love
our brothers and sisters, we’re just liars.
So, what should we learn from this? Perhaps that our
interpersonal relationships don’t need to hinge on agreement with one another.
I can love someone who has the wrong ideas about doctrine. I
can fellowship with a brother who sees things differently than I do. I can
extend grace to a sister who calls me a heretic.
Are they wrong? Maybe. But perhaps I’m the one who is off
base? Until we know for sure, our main goal should be to love one another as
Christ has loved us.
In the early church, for example, there were three different views of the doctrine of hell. For nearly 300 years none of those people considered the others to be "heretics" or worthy of excommunication or disqualified from the faith.
It was only after Constantine shifted the paradigm of Christianity from a focus on Christlikeness [orthopraxy] to one of Correctness [orthodoxy] that Christians started persecuting one another over differences of opinion in matters of faith.
So, nowhere do we get the idea that the Gospel is about
having the correct information. Instead, it’s about having a transformational relationship
with Jesus.
This relationship involves abiding in Christ as He abides in
us. Through this process, our sinful self is daily crucified and our spiritual
self – the “new creature” – is brought to life within us.
It’s a constant exchange of death for life where the resurrection
power of Christ is increasingly revealed in us and transforming us into people
who are like Him.
So, in summary, if the Gospel is about having the right information,
then being right is everything.
But, if the Gospel is about transformation, then being
Christlike is everything.
Let go of the need to “be right” and begin to embrace the
reality of Christ’s transformational life in you!
We’re all in process. None of us is right about everything.
Thankfully, we don’t need to be.
We just have to keep abiding in Him.
Peace,
kg
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