This is one of my 'things'. Everyone has things that they value very strongly; ideals and principles that they strive for in their day to day living, and hearing both sides of the story is one of my 'things'. Other things I value are honesty and integrity, not being emotionally governed, justice / fairness [not the same but usually go hand in hand] and never judging or imposing your ideas on anyone else.
Now, recently a friend of mine challenged me about my lifestyle. He believes that my current lifestyle is not in line with Christianity and I need to make changes. Now, I don't mind people challenging me, in fact I love it, but I don't enjoy it when it's executed as a judgement rather than a conversation.
Before we can conclude if my lifestyle is not in line with the lifestyle of a Christian, we have to determine what the requirements are for one to be seen as a Christian.
Not everyone agrees with this, but I believe that being a Christian means two things: Accepting Jesus as your Savior and then living by the principles that governed his life, and are laid out in the Bible. This however is where the problem comes in.
The question of how to define salvation is a difficult one, and the answer is rather convoluted, but basically it means that we acknowledge that if Jesus hadn't given up His perfect life, we would all be going south very fast. But that's not where it ends, but rather where it starts.
From there the basic idea is that we have to improve our lives by reading the Bible and applying the principles that are outlined in the Bible, which are also the same principles that Jesus lived by when he was around. Now, this is an extremely simplified version because there are many different things in the Bible that people can interpret differently based on their own ideals and experiences.
Example, Ephesians 5v3 states "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people." [NIV]
Now I may read that and say, "Cool, I don't drink to get drunk, I don't do drugs, I am a virgin, I'm not greedy, so I'm good"
But another person may come along and say "Drinking is wrong because alcohol is a poison therefore it's impure, therefore it's wrong. Smoking is an impurity, therefore it's wrong. Any sort of sexual activity, irrespective of how small [I'm talking about holding hands, kissing etc] is wrong, and wanting anything in life is greedy because all we need is air, therefore we should not want anything so that's wrong too."
Now, is one of these wrong? I'm not entirely sure, but this is why listening to both sides of the story is imperative.
My friend believes that any sort of drinking is wrong, any sort of smoking is wrong, and even going to a club where there are people doing drugs is wrong. I don't feel that way. I believe that drinking or smoking done in moderation, and responsibility, is the way to go. If you can do these things and go into a club and have a good time without having to be drunk or high or hook up with some girl, then you're more likely to make an impact on people you meet than someone who just comes in and believes everything around him or her is wrong.
Having said that, you can go into a club and not partake in any of the activities around you, and still make an impact on the people around you. At the end of the day, how much of an impact you make comes down to your attitude.
If you have a rubbish attitude, people don't want to talk to you. I have made a bigger influence by going to clubs, having a drink and chatting to drunk people than I ever did when I was trying to be the perfect Christian. But again, that's just my view of things, and it's not guaranteed to be right.
At the end of the day, I hope to be able to always hear people out, not to judge people and to be true to what I believe is right based on what the Bible says. Sure it's unlikely that I'll agree 100% with anyone in the world, because we all have different experiences and different interpretations of what we believe, but if you are happy to hear me out then I'm happy to chat.
No matter how flat you make a pancake, there are still two sides.
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Ah Rick, you are man after my own heart.
ReplyDeleteI believe, ofcourse, that Jesus is the best example here as he lived a pure life, but still associated and spent time ministering to the lost and rejected of the world, which in our case would be found in clubs and pubs. Often, he didn't even preach to them and he never judged them. He was just their friend, and His love is what made them see the truth and turn to Him. We need more people like that in the world. I hope that we can be those people.
Keep on keeping on man.