Theology for Everybody: Romans预览

(Continued from Day 321)

On the third visit, my friend asked what worship was like at my church. Of course, he believed you should only sing the hymns because contemporary music with drums was demonic. That was news to me! So what do you think my friend gave me? That’s right, another book. This one was on why contemporary worship is demonic. It soon dawned on me that this friendship came with a lot of homework.

On our fourth and final visit, my friend asked, “Are you doing evangelism?” I said, “Yes!” He then asked, “Are you doing street witnessing?” Apparently, my friend believed street witnessing is the only way to share your faith. He also believed that he knew exactly when Jesus was coming back because he read it in a book with a bunch of charts. I replied, “Well, I don’t know when Jesus is coming back,” to which my friend quickly replied, “I do.”

I finally had to tell my friend that I felt as if I was being interrogated every time we got together. He told me that I needed to change these things in my life, or else we couldn’t fellowship because I was “worldly.” He said, “Unless these things change in your life, I can’t be friends with you. I believe you’re living a compromised life.” I looked at him and said, “I love Jesus. You love Jesus. If Jesus accepted you and Jesus accepted me, then we should accept each other.”

The story's moral is that my friend had a line, and I had a line, and those lines were in separate places. We each have a “line” about what is Christian or non-Christian, and oftentimes, we add our own legalisms to that line. But we should ultimately align our line with what God says it should be in the Bible.

Because our lines were in separate places, it made my relationship with my friend very painful and difficult. He told me I was worldly; I told him he was judgmental. He wouldn’t spend time with me anymore because he didn’t believe I was doing things right. To me, loving each other despite our faults and flaws was doing things right. If we have the same principle, it’s okay if we have different methods. And if God is pleased with you and me, we should be pleased with each other.

Today’s Reflection

What methods have you added to God’s principles that you’ve judged others by of which you need to repent?