13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits [4] to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 14 To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
2 Thesslonians Chapter 2
I find it extremely interesting that as I study more and more lately the one thing I keep coming up with is this. Works matter. Tradition matters. So Church as a whole matters in the life of Christians. Truly thru Church we participate in the Body of Christ. What traditions are we passing on to our children? To the next generation? We are teaching them now how to be Christians so which type of Christian are we teaching them to be?
The reason this seems to be glaring to me right now is this. Doctrine without love is useless. Faith without works is dead.
James 2
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good [2] is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Yet today many of us seemed far more preoccupied with condemning Arminians, Calvinists, Dispensationalists, Catholics, Orthodox, or anyone else who does not hold to our 27 point litmus test that WE believe you must meet in order to be a Christian.
The Great Commandment Matthew 22
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Now where in there does it say “love your neighbor ONLY if he is a Calvinist”? Or where does it say in there “don’t worry about the people in Haiti they deserved what they got”? What is commanded of us there? To first love God with all our heart then to love our neighbors as ourselves. Truth is we deserve the eartquake JUST as much as Haiti did. However what are you doing to help? What are we doing as a Church to be there. To help people who have no hope?
In the first century Christians became known for their charity for caring for and adopting the kids on the outskirts of town who were abandoned to die there by their pagan parents. Today I am afraid we are more identified by our willingness to condemn each other based on an idea of what one verse may or may not say.
Is it our job to stand for Truth? Yes. Is it our job to as the Church to hold the Light up to the world? Yes. Without doubt. How do we do it? By loving those the world forgot. The orphans in Haiti cared for by the small Anglican Catholic orphanage on the outskirts of Port Au Prince don’t really care if you are Calvinist or Arminian. They need our help. The mother hiding her child from slavers in Sudan does not care if you are Baptist. Our hearts must break and cry out for these people. Or we have become like the world and care not.
O GOD, heavenly Father, whose gift it is that the rain doth fall, and the earth bring forth her increase; Behold, we beseech thee, the afflictions of thy people; increase the fruits of the earth by thy heavenly benediction; and grant that the scarcity and dearth, which we now most justly suffer for our sins, may, through thy goodness, be mercifully turned into plenty; for the love of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
