What is the gospel of the Kingdom?
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations (help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words), baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always (remaining with you perpetually – regardless of circumstances, and on every occasion), even to the end of the age.” (AMP)
So said King Jesus in Matthew 28: 19-20
What did He command us? Most who will read this will know exactly what I’m about to say, because you know the message John and I have carried for years. He commanded us to AGAPE God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to AGAPE our neighbour as ourselves and to AGAPE one another as he Agaped (I know that’s not a word!) us!
The sin that has and is ravaging the church would not have happened if this were in place. Sin cannot dwell, at the levels it is, in an AGAPE environment.
How far has the church fallen from this?
The church is guilty of terrible crimes against itself. Let’s just talk about its leaders who have committed adultery – sometimes for years – been predators and abused children, been addicted to pornography, sex, and alcohol and the list could go on.
Because the church has not died to self rule, has not fully surrendered to Jesus, we don’t have a good reputation with man. How can you be fully surrendered to Jesus and live a life of sin? I’m not talking about a one-off mistake; I’m talking about a lifestyle of adultery or porn or alcohol that stays covered up until it is called out usually by someone other than the perpetrator. If this can be said of the churches’ leaders, I shudder to think what could be happening in the pews!
Because of this, we find ourselves in a position where we have to ‘bow’ to the secular world’s standards of care and safeguarding. We/the world can’t trust Christians. What an absolute state of affairs.
We’ve reached the point where 1 over 60-year-old lady who has done children’s work for years, can no longer look after a few children on her own. We’ve reached the point where 85-year-old ‘Doris’ who is on the tea rota now has to do an hours safeguarding course.
Of course, we must comply to the rules of the nation in which we live, I am not suggesting otherwise, but don’t you long for a day when the world could look on the church and say, those guys don’t need such stringent safeguarding rules because they live by a different standard? They live by the ‘Kingdom of God’s’ standards, and their track record is no child abuse or sins against another. WOW! Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be?
The church should be the safest place on earth. The church should be the place where everyone who is truly born again (that’s another blog) lives by the standard of Agape.
Would sin be fully eradicated? No. We all still sin, sin won’t be completely gone until we get to paradise. Would lifestyle sin be eradicated, absolutely, yes. Why? Because the Agape of God would compel us to die to self-rule, it would bring sin out into the open and everyone – those women who have been devastated by adultery, those children who have never got over the abuse of the priest or minister – would be protected, and these sins against them would never have happened. I say again, how can you continually live a lifestyle of sin if Agape is your foundation? I don’t believe it’s possible.
The church, by and large, has ignored Agape and we are now subject to the safeguarding rules of the world who care not about our beliefs. I’ve recently read Dietrich Boneoffer say that ‘Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of the church’ I agree. He also said that ‘Jesus bids us, come and die’
I/ We have let the Lord down by not taking the gospel of the Kingdom seriously.
I want a new day.
Until next time,
D x
