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"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you,
and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for
my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."
Clearly, Jesus enjoins us to forgive others for their failings and even
their hatred of us, and He does so in many contexts. Indeed, He says that we
will be forgiven to the degree that we forgive others. (Matthew 6:14-15)
Christians know how far we fall short of God's standards of
righteousness. Without His grace, or unmerited favor, to us we could not
stand before Him. We know that we don't have any righteousness in and of
ourselves; what righteousness we do have has been imputed to us by God.
Therefore, we are obligated to forgive others, even those who persecute
us through word and deed! Only God is our righteousness, and we all are
sinners saved by grace. Hence, if we compare our so-called "good works" all
we are doing are comparing each other's filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6)
When GLBT Christians are persecuted, they are in good company! As the
verses of Scripture that preceded this article state, those who are
persecuted for God's sake are blessed, and we are to realize that few, if
any, prophets died in their sleep. They brought a message to the
self-righteous that the latter didn't want to hear and the smug,
self-righteous, frequently killed the messenger. These messengers were sent
by God, as I believe GLBT Christians have been sent, and those who loved, and
were embroiled in, the darkness couldn't stand them or their message of
truth; consequently, they tortured and killed them.
So, Jesus puts it up front: we are to forgive others and indeed even
pray for them who despitefully use us. However, I can find no place in
Scripture that says that "forgiveness" is equivalent to "acceptance" of those
who hate us or in any way pervert the Gospel of Christ!
The haters in our midst, in the Church, are usually the legalists who
have their own god of do's and don'ts that is antithetical to the Gospel
message of grace, faith, peace, love, compassion, and inclusiveness. To
accept and embrace them and their false gospel is to commit a grievous sin,
in that we thereby tacitly affirm and reinforce their perversions of the
Gospel message.
In the Christian life, there is no middle ground! We either live in the
Spirit or we live by the law. The Christian lives in the Spirit; the
purveyors of a false gospel (which is no gospel) live by the law. The
Apostle Paul said, "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of
devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of
devils." (1Corinthians 10:21)
The perverters of the Gospel message, the legalists, those who
non-contextually use selected biblical passages to justify their own
prejudices against GLBT people, are wittingly or unwittingly drinking and
eating from the cup of devils. We are to forgive them! But we are not
called upon to accept or embrace them!
They are haters and hate-mongers, demonizers, who seek to exclude from
fellowship in the Church and from mainstream society those whom they do not
recognize as their brothers and sisters. To affirm them by acceptance or
embracing, under the false belief that that is what God wants us to do, is to
make a tragic mistake. Such affirmation and embracing merely serves to
reinforce the false gospel they preach; does God a terrible injustice.
If pushed to the wall, I would have to admit that my favorite book of
Scripture is the book of Galatians! I feel, as did Martin Luther, who said
he was married to the book of Galatians. It is the nugget, the gem, of the
New Testament, and cogently delineates the Gospel message, which the books of
Romans and Ephesians particularly amplify.
This beautiful book hammers home our liberty in Christ! We are not
under the law, and if we seek to live under the law we nullify the grace and
sacrifice of Christ. Hear Paul: "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is
not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel
of Christ." (Galatians 1:6-7) He goes so far as to say that these perverters
of the Gospel message should be "God damned." (Galatians 1:8-9)
These perverters of the Gospel are "false brethren" who seek to remove
our liberty that we have in Christ and we are not to give place by subjection
to their perversions "not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might
continue with you" (Galatians 2:5) Paul continues, "Knowing that a man is
not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ ... for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." (Galatians 2:16)
The leaven that leavens the whole lump of dough is sin and in the
context of sin in the Gospel message is the self-righteousness that comes
from thinking that one can, must, and does live by the law, simply because he
or she adheres to current culturally approved traditions and values thought
to be "Christian" in nature. Were you saved by the Spirit or by the law?
Were you chosen by God to know that Christ is our only hope or did you think
that you chose God?
Before the worlds were formed, God chose those He called by name; not
because of any righteousness on our part, but for His own purposes to be used
by Him. This initiative on God's part is known as "prevenient grace." We
tap into this grace solely by trusting God and by so doing we are living and
walking in the Spirit, despite our sins; despite the constant warfare between
our flesh and our spirit.
Our persecutors embrace a false gospel and to the degree we affirm them
we are reinforcing their perversion of the Gospel. The Gospel means "Good
News." The good news is that God is the Alpha and the Omega; the author and
finisher of our faith! Our works are completely irrelevant to the good news,
for if we hang our bodies on our deeds, and seek to live up to the law, we
nullify the grace and sacrifice of God on our behalf and there is no greater
sin than that.
"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse ... But that
no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The
just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but The man that
doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the
law, being made a curse for us." (Galatians 3:10-13) Those who pervert the
Gospel message through their preaching of legalism and do's and don'ts, which
have absolutely nothing to do with the good news of the Gospel, must be
forgiven, but never accepted until they repent and return to the pure milk of
the Word of God.
Those who preach the law are children of the bondwoman and God says to
cast out the bondwoman and her offspring from our midst, as he told Abraham
to do to Hagar and Ishmael. "Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son
of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then,
brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." (Galatians
4:30-31) "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are
justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." (Galatians 5:4-5)
Notice, we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by our
faith! No one is righteous; righteousness has been imputed to us by God's
grace; we nullify that grace by preaching legalism; seeking to live by the
law, thereby being judged by the law. We are to forgive the misguided, the
haters, the hate-mongers, those who persecute GLBT people and others, but we
are not to accept them or their perversions in our lives or in the life of
the Church.
We are enjoined to show forth the fruit of the spirit which "is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness,
temperance." (Galatians 5:22-23) And if one is captive to sin, "ye which
are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering
thyself, lest thou also be tempted." (Galatians 6:1) It is those who trust
in God's grace, forgiving the failings of others, living lives of faith
despite seen circumstances and despite the legalists in our midst, who are
"the Israel of God." (Galatians 6:16)
As Paul did with Peter when the latter sought to capitulate to the
Judaizers, the legalists, who came from James' church to spy out Christians'
liberty (Galatians 2:11-14), which was undoubtedly a prelude to the Jerusalem
council as depicted in Acts 15, we are not to give place to the enemies of
the Gospel of Christ "no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel
might continue." (Galatians 2:5)
Christians are free men and women in Christ! To the degree that others
who have allowed traditions and their own prejudices to justify to themselves
and others the persecution of GLBT people, it is to that degree that they
must be "withstood to their faces."
Of course, forgive them their ignorance and even their hatred! But
never confuse that forgiveness with acceptance of them as fellow heirs in the
kingdom of God, as they besmirch the name, sacrifice, and grace of Christ by
their legalism, ignorance, and hatred.
If we do embrace them, we are indeed eating and drinking from the table
and the cup of devils!
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Here I Stand : My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality John Shelby Spong Aspects of Love : An Exploration of 1 Corinthians 13 J. Barrie Shepherd
Other Articles By Jerry Maneker:
A Message of Grace to a Roman Catholic Priest
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