"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. – John 3:16-18
Today's Reading: 2 Kings 15-16; John 3:1-18
Sigh…
So this is one of those scriptures that have always been hard for me.
I love what it says for me. That’s great. But for those who aren’t a fan of Big Homie J…
Rough game man…
To be quite honest with you I still struggle with it until I remember that condemning others to eternal damnation is NOT MY JOB. But when I really think about it, my biggest struggles are with how folks use this scripture.
A couple weeks ago I was walking around during my lunch break in downtown LA. As I’m going about my business trying to come up on some good grubbery I see some dude holding a sign that says “John 3:16” on it. And on top of that he looks at me like I’m some kind of heathen with devil horns growing out of my fro.
Getouttaherewithallthat
In the past it used to hurt my feelings, but now it just pisses me off. This kind of behavior is what I was talking about with my last post on my pet peeves. I hate when the Bible is used as a weapon to condemn random pedestrians and the like.
I’ve been to many a Easter sermon where the preacher brings out the fire and brimstone and scares the hell out of everyone (pun intended). Then at the end of the sermon you have all kinds of folk walking up to the alter call, knees shaking, confessing their faith in Jesus.
If fear is the opposite of faith then how are these people “saved”. If you come to God out of a “if you can’t beat Him, then join Him” mind state… what do you really believe? Do you believe that you should live your life with Jesus as the example or are you just trying to get over?
Now I’m not saying that churches shouldn’t preach from this scripture, or that it should be hidden away from folks so that we can all feel warm and fuzzy… but I do wonder about this.
We are supposed to spread the Good News right? But is that what we are doing when we harass people on the street with this scripture, finger pointing, with mean grimaces on our faces?
I have no answers here… Just my thoughts…
