Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Correct but not Cold, Correct with Compassion.

 Christianity is more than being right. It’s more than having correct doctrine. In addition to having correct doctrine, there should be a warmth that radiates from the heart of the Christian. And that warmth that radiates from the Christian is something that can be felt and experienced by the people that interact with them.

Christians should strive to be correct, but should never be a people that are as cold, contentious, and calloused as they are correct. They should never be merely bright lights of knowledge that somehow radiate very little heat. They should never be a people that simply know a lot of facts about God, but have such a coldness towards other professing Christians that it makes people wonder if they genuinely know the Lord Jesus Christ personally and intimately at all.

Jesus Christ is Love dressed in flesh, the perfect embodiment of Love. He is God, the second Person of the blessed Trinity, and God is Love (1 John 4:18). Christianity is to know Jesus Christ in an intimate way. It is to know Him personally, and to strive to enjoy Him maximally. It is to have Him not only visit our soul, but to have Him dwell in us.

And if love dwells in us, then love should radiate from us. Other people should want to draw near to us in order to warm their souls up. Different people will certainly struggle in different ways because of sin that remains in our mortal bodies, but our overall course of life should be one that should become more and more loving, degree by degree, as Christ becomes more and more formed in us, and treasured by us. Amen.-- Joshua Arnold.