I read a tweet a while back that expressed what I think might be a fairly common mentality today.
Have you ever met a person who says they fell in love with Jesus because a religious person or group of religious people scolded them for their morals, their ethics, and their lifestyle choices? In all my years, I have yet to meet a man, woman, or child with such a story.
I’d like to think about and interact with this a bit. I’m going to assume that “scolded” may be a bit of hyperbole and what we’re really talking about is talking to people about sin, judgment, and hell. I think the mentality expressed by this tweet is the way we share and people respond to Christ is mainly through talking about his unconditional love and acceptance and thus discussing the bad news of their sin is akin to “scolding.”
I understand the sentiment. You catch more flies with honey, I get that. But flies caught with sweet honey won’t stick around when the heat is turned up. When the cost of being a Christian rises, as it is these days, you need more than God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life. Those that will stick around are those who know, to the bottom of their toes, their alternative to following Christ is hell. And thus they see his glory – but more on that in a bit.
So first, this sounds an awful lot like pragmatism, where good and true is defined by what works and produces the most or best results. We don’t, and we can’t gauge ‘success’ by results, but by faithfulness to God and his truth. I don’t think God will ever ask “how many” (as that is clearly His work) but instead will ask “how faithful” were you? There are missionaries who labor in very hard places for decades…and the numbers aren’t fantastic. But their faithfulness is tested and proven over the long haul. Great is their reward.
Secondly, this makes me wonder whether folks who post like this have read what John the Baptist said in the gospels. Jesus praised John the Baptist as the greatest among men – and that means we might want to look at what he said and how he said it. John was not a “tone over truth” kind of guy. His head was physically separated from his body over truth he refused to back down on or “nuance into nothingness”. One might put a good bit of his teaching in the category of “scolding” today. The fact is lost sheep will come to Christ when they hear his voice. But what is “his voice?” It is not a vocal pattern or frequency, it’s his TRUTH – which absolutely does ‘scold’ us for our worldly morals, ethics, desires, lusts, and choices. There is zero “good news” until we know the bad news. When the sheep hear God’s truth, they recognize and know it, and they come to their shepherd in repentance and faith. Speaking to them in the voice of the shepherd (truth) is the only way. We are to do so in love and grace (and not as jerks), but the voice they recognize isn’t “niceness”, its TRUTH.
Thirdly, another issue, and a growing one today, is when we base an argument on “well, what I’ve seen and experienced is this, therefore this is truth.” When anyone makes their personal experience an authority to appeal to for others, rather than God’s own divine revelation in the scriptures, that’s a problem.
However, there are times when people leave a sermon that has “bloodied their toes” and that is usually when they know most assuredly they have encountered the true and living Holy God. If you want to turn to experience as a factor, turn to the experiences of Isaiah, Daniel, or Peter as they encountered the Holy God and see that what they are instantly most aware of – their sin. When John the Baptist spoke (“you brood of vipers!”), people were struck to the heart and started asking “What must I do!?” The tweet above is much more indicative of a worldly mindset than one derived from being in the presence of a holy God, who is a ‘consuming fire’ (Heb 12:29). Niceness can’t bypass the necessary ingredients of conviction and repentance, otherwise you may end up with a church attender, but you don’t have a Christian.
But the kicker for me is this – Luke 7:47, which is how Jesus wraps up one of my very favorite stories from the gospels of the sinful woman who anoints his feet with oil and wipes them with her hair. Awesome event. Jesus uses this event to ‘scold’ the Pharisee hosting the dinner. He ends vs. 47 with this: “But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Serious question – how does one come to understand just how much they’ve been forgiven if not confronted about their sinful and worldly morals, ethics, lusts, desires, and choices? Our level of love for Christ is based on knowing just how much we are forgiven by his undeserved grace.
In that sense, the formula is actually more akin to this – little ‘scolding’, little love for God.
These days, we aren’t even sure what “saved” means. Ask people “saved from what?” and there’s no telling what answer you will get. The biblical answer is we are saved FROM GOD; saved from his just wrath against our sin (1 Thess 1:10). Until and unless someone talks to us about our sin, our willful rebellion, there is in our minds nothing really to be saved from. Jesus as a Savior isn’t precious, he’s more like a religious Santa – because we don’t realize we need saving from God’s eternal wrath. Instead, many today think what we need saving from is missing out on God’s best blessing, his wonderful plan for our rebellious lives. That’s a mess, with rather unfortunate eternal consequences.
So I think the actual answer to the tweet’s question is this: “Yes. In fact, all of the believers who love Jesus did so because somewhere, somehow they were to some degree ‘scolded’ for their morals, their ethics, and their lifestyle choices.” He who is forgiven little, loves Jesus little. Conviction, repentance, and faith are the core of salvation. You can’t skip it. Before faith comes repentance; a godly sorrow over our willful rebellion against our Creator and his law – our personal offense against Him. Without repentance, whatever you call it, it isn’t salvation. Christ’s first sermon began with the word “repent”. I would have never gotten to repentance if I’d not been confronted with God’s truth which “scolded” me.
The Bible teaches we don’t come to Christ because we feel the love of Christ first. We come to Christ when we feel the sting of His law and our breaking of it. We come to Him AFTER we know that we are a sinner and feel the weight of it, THEN we run to Christ with the prayer of that tax collector, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Some form of ‘scolding’ required. By the way, when God takes us down this path, that IS love. When we repent, THEN we are utterly amazed by his love, his grace, his mercy – and worship is easy. THEN we love him. We love him because he first loved us – enough to get in our face through his hands and feet today – one of his sheep.
As for me, I’ll take the “scolding” every single time. My answer is “I know! In fact, I’m far worse than that!” and that leads me to Christ as my merciful savior. Without that, I’m like everyone else – looking for gifts from Santa, not worshipping a merciful Savior to atone for my sin and grant me justification purely out of his grace.
The mercy and love of scolding.