Chapter 7 – Message: A Sermon of Offense

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48 (ESV)

It really cannot be escaped. You go to church and the message is “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is not truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44 (ESV)

Then you lead the children in worship and the Point of the Day is “We show we love God by loving others.” The Key Verse is “you are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:14.

If you claim God as your Heavenly Father, then you must be sinless, but if you are sinful, then the Devil, the Father of lies, is your father. It cannot be escaped and as Christians we daily run the risk of being hypocrites. In fact, that is exactly what tends to drive me insane – the principle that you cannot help your brother to remove the splinter from his eye BECAUSE of the log in your own.

Yes, I do that. I am a hypocrite. I am not perfect. And there is no way I can ever be. And I am hopelessly judgmental and critical and suspicious. But I am supposing that I am no different from many others. I know I am on the receiving end of much judgment, criticism and suspicion from people who claim to be born again and follow Christ – people who would rather point fingers and stand in the crowd rather than make the effort at using the Bible for correction and discipline. Like Jesus said, he who has no sin, cast the first stone. Let’s not draw attention to ourselves. Who knows but the fingers will turn your direction.

This chapter captivated me. It highlighted two Russian authors, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, who represented two sides of the same coin. The former lived a downward spiral of depression because he realized he could never be good enough for God. The latter lived a victorious life because he realized that it was through grace we were saved. One author saw only absolute ideals, but the other recognized absolute grace.

I was raised believing that Jesus told us that hating our brother was breaking the commandment every bit as much as actually killing a man. And he told us this so that we could recognize that there was absolutely no way that we could ever be good enough on our own. And so we would completely rely on Jesus’ death on the cross for our mercy and salvation.

Amen!

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Luke 23:34a (ESV)

As Christians, we know exactly what we do. And so we take up the cross, our acknowledged guilt, and approach Jesus in repentance for forgiveness and try again tomorrow.