“context is so important…”

I went to the 7:00 at the Experience last night.  Corey wasn’t preaching – another Pastor named Greg did.   I hadn’t met Greg yet but he did a great job in the continuation of teaching 1 John.

Greg made a lot of good points about our journey as Christians.  One thing he said resonated on many levels for me.  “context is so important”

He was referring to the portion of scripture in 1 John that tells us not to love the world…

1 John 2:15-17 New International Version (NIV)

On Not Loving the World

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father^[a] is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

This can cause conflict because in other places we are told to love the world.  This is where context comes in and Greg’s observation is common in the church.

This part of scripture is tough.  John, similarly to James, the brother of Jesus, is a strong man and speaking what some consider harsh truth.  It is harsh and doesn’t fit our Instagram view of Christian faith where everything is rosy.

I don’t want to hijack the validity of Greg’s message because I agree.  Its not uncommon  for us to take things out of context.  The media does it.  Politicians do it.  I’ve been guilty of it.

My take away is directed to the Christian church at large as they attack and malign and dehumanize those of us who are part of the LGBTQ community.  Y’all know you understand the principle of taking things in context.  Please don’t take scripture out of context to validate your position.   We may never agree on everything and that’s okay, but lets not use hate and disrespect someone because they don’t agree with you.  We are part of one body – the body of Christ and as the church, the bride of Christ, we have a responsibility to love our neighbors.