Who's fight are you fighting

Is your social life a just one?

Jesus stated to some that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Some, He stated, were not far from the Kingdom. When we think of a kingdom we naturally think of a material, two dimensional places that we can drive to, walk to and live in. What if what Jesus was talking about and what we think are different? Wouldn’t be the first time, would it?

I bring this up because recently my attentions have been turned toward “Social Justice” and what that means. I will first state that I have no issues with offering tithes so that widows and orphans are taken care of. Next are the aged and infirmed and there are reasons existing as to why those people are not able to enter the work force to provide for themselves. After that, my compassion begins to wane as I look upon a full able bodied individual who is in possession of their mental and physical faculties but yet refuses to work. It is stated in scripture that if a person wants to eat they are to work (2 Thess 3:10-12). In Genesis our God is very clear that we are to sweat and toil for our existence (Gen 2:15). We can debate till the cows come home if it was about Adam and Eve’s sin, mankind’s sin, or sin in general. The fact remains that the God of creation deemed that we as His creation would toil for our existence until we are naught. So why then are we made to feel guilty if we hold back from giving our hard earned bread (money) to someone who has all reasonable means to make it themselves? (Eccl 2:24) I want to talk for a moment about something that smells like smoke, and I believe comes from the pit of hell, guilt. Not the kind of guilt we feel when we have done something offensive to God and to ourselves. This guilt is thrust upon us by society when they try to convince us that we are not being a good person (in their eyes). That society has created a standard possibly and most likely different from God’s standard (Jesus), and when they feel we have not measured up, we are chastised for it. This is what God tells us is not of His doing, but it is of the devil.

The devil, Satan, the lord of the air was allowed to roam this world while God has rule over the Kingdom of Heaven (Job 1:1-12, 1 Peter 5:8, James 4:7). Going along with scripture and taking it at face value because if we do not then we run the risk of devaluing the sacrifice of Jesus himself and then where is our salvation; looking at scripture we see Satan is still God the Father’s worker, he is still toiling for his existence. He is in this world and it is not Heaven. Jesus states that He saw Lucifer fall from Heaven, so that shows us they are separate places and wherever Lucifer is, it is not Heaven, Jesus told us so.

Why the push then to create Heaven here? I would say it is because that is where Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit are, and there is light and love there. But I put to you this question, why do we think we can create Heaven in the midst of Lucifer’s world? People, we are being sold a bill of goods and it didn’t come from Jesus. Jesus stated to us what the Kingdom of God looks like through the Sermon on the Mount, the story of the protocol son, His examples of kindness, gentleness, acts of healing and words of Godly wisdom. All those are right and good and do make us feel so good, and we have our mountain top moments. And just like Peter, James and John we want to build tents and never leave (Matt 17: 3-5). We come away from those mountain top experiences and want to re-live it, recreate it, we want Jesus to be so close, and we want Him to call us good. So when we hear another “believer” call us something other than good, we start to worry about getting to Heaven.

So when looking at all of this with the mindset of “social justice”, it is not conscionable to believe we can create Heaven when we are in the devil’s kingdom. I am not saying that we should not help the poor and orphaned, the aged, and the challenged of our society, of course not. What I am saying is that while we are fixing a sandwich or dishing a bowl of soup for someone, clearing out our closets of unneeded clothing, there is someone in my church or yours who is telling us it is because the evil, mean and greedy farmers that those people are poor. It is because the laws of our society that those poor people exist. It is because of the consumer mentality of our society that we want and use these people for our own gain and do nothing to better their circumstances that is making us “bad” people.

This type of talk my friends is class warfare and it smells like smoke, and is from the pit of hell. The devil always has a way of taking what Jesus starts and puts a twist on it to distort it. That is what he does in this world, and it keeps us on our toes to discern God’s truth from the rest. We are not to hate or dislike someone else because of their house or boat or the fact that they have neither. We are to live the gospel, which is the message of good news that Jesus was born, is real, and made a way for us to be with Him and The Father for all eternity. That is the true message of love, and we are to carry that message in our hearts and share it with not only the poor of material wealth, but the poor of heart and spirit.

My issue is that there is bad theology being spread in our churches and has been for decades and it is false teaching. The concept that if all were given equal amounts of food, clothing, and money, that there would then no longer be starvation or poverty in this world. That to me is short sightedness and not of God (Mark 14:7). Whoever presupposes this is fooling his or her self into thinking that they can correct God’s creation. That somehow they can put mankind back on track after the incident in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden is proof that sinfulness lives in mankind’s heart even when surrounded by every good and perfect gift and is kept company by the One who is all love and all charity. True charity is sharing from the abundance of God’s blessings to you and offering it to others. Who are the poor? Are they always depicted by the type of car they drive or the type of house they live in? Jesus found true friends and believers in the house of Lazarus along with Martha and Mary his sisters. Scripture does not say they were wealthy in goods but I do believe Jesus saw their wealth in spirit. Zaccheus had goods of wealth but was humbly poor in spirit and revealed that to Jesus (Luke 19).

The next time you hear someone speak about the goodness of “social justice”; when you hear them depict that there are good players and bad players, good characters and bad characters think back to how Jesus taught. He did not set one group of people against another. He only pointed out their lack and what was needed to be done about it and from what source they would find the answer. He lives to point us toward our Father not an IRA, 401K or new Lexus. Jesus does not seek to show us how to harbor ill feelings toward those God our Father has blessed with the ability to create wealth. How those individuals divide up their spoils is between them and God, and they are answerable only to God just as we are answerable only to God about the gifts we have been endowed with (1 Cor : chapter 12). If a person gains through thievery, then they should answer to the law. If the laws are bad, then we need to work in our government to create better laws that are more in alignment with God’s law. It is not our place to sit in God’s seat and cast judgment over someone because of what we see on the outside. Thankfully God knows our heart and will judge us rightly and with compassion and mercy because He IS compassion and mercy.

Be careful my friends and look for Jesus in your heart and in Heaven. Do not look to create Heaven on earth because that is not God’s plan for us. Jesus will return one day and set foot on the Mount of Olives, and that is when the New Kingdom will be established, but not by human hands and not outside of God’s purview. A mindset that sets up good guys and bad guys is nothing other than the devil getting to our basic instinct to see ourselves in the place of those poor abused people, and we transfer ourselves into their shoes and it makes us want to fight back because we are healthy, fed and prosperous. The devil plays with us like pawns on a chess board, and he knows it. The devil is someone who knows your buttons and knows how to make you howl and bear your teeth. The devil is the lord of war in this world, and he brings death along with him (Rev 6:8 KJV).

Know whose fight you’re fighting.

Till we meet face to face or in God’s house,