How We Know Each Other

I teach at a Christian High School. There are a number of things I would like to write about, and a number of reasons that this could be difficult. I will need to keep anonymity in anything I write. I will need to expect that if I write about something good, you will expect it is about yourself unless there is evidence to say otherwise, and I will need to expect that if I write about something bad, you will expect that it is not about you unless there is evidence to say otherwise.



One of the most difficult things about teaching at a Christian school is the fact that not everyone is Christian. While I understand that high school years are a time of natural searching and (sometimes) natural rebellion, there are times when the submission to these struggles makes it possible for us to know each other, for good or for bad. It's the level that these struggles get to that leads me to suggest that some of the the students are not Christian.



And here is problem number one. I have just become judgmental. I have made judgments about people based on what I see in them. I see the way they deal with authority, I see the way they spend the weekend, (either from what they talk about or from their facebook pages), I see the way they ignore God in worship and/or prayer, I see the music they listen to. In other words, I see them as they represent themselves to be. They, by their actions, deny that Christ is a major player in their lives.



Okay, so do I. Yes at times, yes even often, yes, I am not perfect. What God teaches though, is that those who choose to sin, who deliberately decide and plan to do something against His will for His children, they are children of darkness. The sins of a person asking forgiveness for what they are already planning to do again tomorrow or the next day, are not forgiven. This is a truth. For some it is a sad truth, for some it is truth they deny, but it is a truth none the less.



It is not my truth. Many times I speak to students about their lifestyle, and they say it is none of my business. They say that I am wrong to judge them. But it is not my truth that I try to base my discussion with them on. It is God's truth. God calls us to be holy as He is holy, (1Peter 1:16). He calls us to be imitators of Him, and goes on with the strict truth in Eph 5, that there must be even a hint of immorality, impurity, obscenity, or course joking. Greedy and impure people have no place in the kingdom of God. OUCH. Yep that hurts because it's harsh, and for some the only choice is to ignore this as truth or ignore God. OUCH.

How do we know each other? If other know we are Christians by our love, surely we know that we are Christians by our love. Our love for each other and for others. 1 John mentions several times that we show who we are and show that we belong to God because we love Him and obey His commandments.

So this is how we know each other. We can see in our lifestyles whether or not we are Christian. We can and should judge ourselves according to God's standards. And when the reputation of the body of Christ is being hurt, we also need to make some judgements about others and call them to task. In fact Paul teaches in 1Cor 5:12 that it is those outside of the church that we not the judge, and that we are supposed to judge those inside. Paul teaches us to warn each other publicly, to have nothing to do with the one who remains in sin, to expel the immoral or drunkard and to have nothing to do with him. Paul warns that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little sin will spread through out the body of Christ, and the end the body shows a disease and Jesus is seen as impure. His reputation is hurt.

Does His body have a group of drinkers? The body will learn that this is okay, and the world will see it and mock. Does a body have a group of gossips tearing each other down? The body will devour itself more and more and the world will say it serves us right. Does a body have a shady business man? Then the body will be trying to cover something that shouldn't need to be protected, and the world will see gawk at the parts of the body that are showing.

Christians need to see this as truth. Christian parents need to judge their children's actions and accept that their high school children will be held responsible for their actions. But some parents will simply not acknowledge that there is an issue. Based on what they see, or what they accept from their children, they do not get the whole truth, or they play it down as wild oats that need to be sown, and the time as just a normal part of adolescence. Either way, they let their children and their church and school community down. Discipline is part of the church, sometimes really tough discipline, and there is no age given for a time of a "normal" display of anti-Christ attitudes. Once the person is responsible to make their own choices about how to spend a night out, (based on the parents not stopping them from doing if it is wrong), they are responsible to answer to God's call to purity. They are responsible as representatives of Christ as long as they bear His name, and they represent the Christian communities they are a part of. They must be taught to respect that, and live according to that.

We all need to respond to the call to be obedient followers and imitators of God. If we don't, we need to held to the account of the truth of God's word. Otherwise Jesus looks like a foolish figure with a distorted and twisted body. We need to get into some serious body building, and sometimes that means losing some unneeded flesh. OUCH.