Monday, September 14, 2009
Break Up To Make Up?
A while back, I wrote about how Christianity isn't necessarily nice. So, when Milt Stanley linked to this piece, "Nice and Christian," my interest was piqued.
The bigger question is, "Is it ever OK to be nasty?" My answer is, ABSOLUTELY, because "nasty" is in the eye of the beholder. Many people label truth as nasty - especially if it is truth they do not want to hear.
"Not nice," "mean," "nasty, "impolite" - these are words we often hang on things when they are unpleasant and unpleasantness has as much to do with us as it does with what is actually being said or experienced.
Which means that in some sense the gospel will always be nasty.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
The wages of sin is death.
These are unpleasant words indeed. They are not nice - they are condemning. And people often refuse the hear them for those reasons, Christianity should, after all, be "nice."
The question is how to make them heard.
At the first hint of nastiness, natural community fractures. But for Christians nastiness is an opportunity. Here’s where we truly show ourselves to be the people of Jesus. We forgive.Interesting take. Raises a couple of questions in my mind. The first is the obvious - should be we nasty in community for the sake of practicing forgiveness. I think Paul pretty well covered that in Romans 6:1,2. (So much for the title of this post, but what the heck.)
Many people think nastiness ends Christian community. The gospel says nastiness is where Christian community begins.
The bigger question is, "Is it ever OK to be nasty?" My answer is, ABSOLUTELY, because "nasty" is in the eye of the beholder. Many people label truth as nasty - especially if it is truth they do not want to hear.
"Not nice," "mean," "nasty, "impolite" - these are words we often hang on things when they are unpleasant and unpleasantness has as much to do with us as it does with what is actually being said or experienced.
Which means that in some sense the gospel will always be nasty.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
The wages of sin is death.
These are unpleasant words indeed. They are not nice - they are condemning. And people often refuse the hear them for those reasons, Christianity should, after all, be "nice."
The question is how to make them heard.
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