Simple to complex....right to wrong.

We've been trying to undo the maddeningly simple teachings of Jesus for many centuries.  In our churches today, we've added so many layers to most of his teaching, spoken or not, that it's hard to distinguish where truth ends and inference begins.

We teach our children the Golden Rule, as we like to call it, when they're quite young.  We use it in the context of sibling behavior, or Sunday School class decorum.  Treat others as you want to be treated.  Be pleasant when others are not.  Share your cookie and juice with someone who is still hungry.

Our children, with their young and kind hearts, will believe that this principle applies to us also, and will remind us of opportunities to do the same.  

That's where the simple teachings of Jesus become the ridiculously complex practices of ourselves today.

What we say...

Well, Junior, you just aren't old enough to get it quite yet.  I mean you can't just give hard-earned money away to someone you don't know.  That would be throwing it away.  God wouldn't be pleased if we waste what he's given to us.  You see, there's so many more things I have to think about it that you don't realize.  I have to put food on this table. I have to pay the light bill and the mortgage and the blasted phone bill with a million texts per month.  What will your mother and I do when we get old?  You don't know what that person is going to do with my money.  They could use it to buy candy or booze or a million other things they don't need.  I work hard for what we have, and we must be good stewards.  We give to our church, it's just that you don't see everything that goes on.

What it means...

Somewhere along the way, my heart has grown cold.  I've become lazy in the faith.  I won't get to know anyone that could rob time from the pursuit I love the most, which is the accumulation of wealth and the feeling of security. I say I'm a Christ-follower, but I sure don't bother to act like Christ most the time.  My decisions and the way I use my resources say otherwise.  I should get on my knees and repent, trouble is, the preachers and everyone around me are just the same.  We've become a self-centered, egotistical church that breeds complacency and self-importance.  We worry more about the wasting of a few dollars than the loss of a life for eternity.

You see, most the time, Jesus made things crystal clear in His word, it's in our fuzzy application that's based on the desires of culture, that we've polluted His message.

Will you be different?

Matthew 7:12  So in everything, do to others what you would have them do unto you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.