An Act Of Love

Christianity, is offensive, and it is exclusive. Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no-one comes to father but through me.’ This belief system is based on the ‘narrow path,’ that there is only one way to God. Jesus said ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.’

If I was browsing belief systems at a market there would be absolutely no chance that I would have chosen the system that alienates friends, offends people, and ends up causing division. But searching for truth led me down this path, and once I could see the destination, like a tiny dot in the distance, I knew I had to be brave, and say what was uncomfortable. 

Our ever-changing world makes Christianity sound more and more offensive. Though there are attempts to catch Christianity, like a butterfly, to put it in a net, to merge and mix it with other belief systems, to find the unity and what we have in common as beings on this earth. 

But Christianity, resists this merging. It stubbornly stands alone, saying that it is different and the only way. 

Do not mistake this aloneness for hatred, for judgment, for intolerance. These qualities are what is known as the ‘religious spirit,’ something that the Bible warns against. We are meant to love each other. 

In a post-modern world subjective belief systems converge into a oneness. We are taught that this is the way to love, this is the way to connect. But in this blurry mix of confusion, logic gets lost just as it does in the narratives the TV tells us. This blurry mix is designed to lead us away from objective truth towards confusion, as the Bible says, ‘Satan is the master of confusion.’  

We do not need to agree to love, to connect, to meet each other in our common humanity. 

One of my favourite examples of this is the book The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. Corrie recalls her father, a Christian man, having lively debates with a Jewish friend. These two people didn’t feel the need to agree, in order to get along. Their difference of opinion didn’t cause division or hatred. During the second world war, Corrie’s entire family organised a network for hiding Jews. The family went to prison/concentration camps for what they did and two family members died. 

There was no exclusion, no hatred there. They disagreed in fundamental ways, but the family risked their lives for their Jewish brothers and sisters. 

The world wants us to think that making claims about objective truth in spirituality as offensive, but I prefer to see it as an act of love.