If Jesus were to walk into our churches - the average church - today (at least in the West), He'd inevitably notice a few discrepancies...and then some. Not wanting to skedaddle down that particular cubby-hole/rabbit-warren with all its potential ramifications, I'll focus upon one subject only: the sorts of characters we now see/we'd have seen in His day - and long before - 'darkening our pews'.
If today's churches were living in the days of the apostles, in the time of the kings (and one queen - though she usurped the role!) of Judah and Israel, in the day and age of the patriarchs and prophets, can you even imagine...for one miniscule moment even, their opening their doors to, let alone inviting into church fellowship, much less church membership...some of the ragtag assortment of characters traversing and adorning the pages of Holy Scripture?
To wit, not just the obvious rabble and assortment of misfits, ragamuffins and other riff-raff, but how about the three - omitting the fourth, Jesus Christ Himself - central characters of the biblical (Older and Newer Testaments) narrative...i.e. Saul-Paul, David and Moses. For, truth be told, folks, each of these distinguished individuals has one very black mark indelibly inscribed against his name in both the Holy Bible and (no doubt) the 'books of remembrance' in Heaven.
Yes, each of them committed that most heinous of crimes - murder. The great deliverer Moses, slaying the Egyptian slave-master mercilessly beating his Hebrew slave worker; King David, carefully planning/engineering the killing in the forefront of battle of arguably his most valiant warrior, Uriah the Hittite; and Saul the Pharisee (and member of the influential Jewish ruling council, Sanhedrin) who later became the great apostle Saul: who not only personally supervised the stoning of Stephen the (first Christian) martyr, but pretty well immediately thereafter orchestrated all out terrorism against the newly formed churches, wherever they were scattered over the known land; again himself participating in the same.
No sirree...it's hardly even conceivable...which once again just goes to show the - vast - difference between God's way of evaluating and assessing character and our own...or as one has put it: 'how different the standard/s by which God and human beings estimate character.'
For what is highly esteemed among [humans] is an abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:15. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.All rights reserved.)
Although equally it would appear that 'what is unacceptable, even an utter abomination in the view of mere mortals is oftentimes not only acceptable, but even commendable, in the sight of God.'
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