We and the church need to be PC

In case you are concerned that this is heresy because of the title, I urge you to read on or skip to the end if you must.

 Galatians 1-3:23

1 Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), ² and all the brethren who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵ to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

Perversion of the Gospel

⁶ I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; ⁷ which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! ⁹ As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

¹⁰ For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.

It's amazing when you think that Paul was writing to churches just a few short years after Jesus had walked on earth, performed miracles, was crucified resurrected and ascended into heaven. Yet these churches were already experiencing many of the problems that we deal with in the church today. How could they have strayed so quickly?

It's amazing that these timeless words that Paul wrote to the early church are still so relavent today. How can we not have learned and changed from watching the mistakes of generation after generation in the church?

Paul begins this letter to the Galatian church by addressing one of the primary ways the church strayed and continues to stray from God's path, His will and plan for the church. Fear of man. Fear is contrary to faith. It believes more in the things we don't want than in those we do. Fear of man is contrary to faith in God. It values the opinion of man over the opinion of God. Surely the church would never do that you might say. Yet the fear of man has power over the church in so many ways. It is more than just the watering down of the truth of God's word for the sake of political correctness. Though that is a major issue which the church today must be willing to recognize.         James 4:4 says -

 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

The church, and we need to decide which will be our priority, which will control the things we do and say, is it our desire to be a friend to the world,to be polically correct, or our desire to be a friend of God? Jesus says in John 15:14

"You are My friends if you do what I command you."  

The church today, and we ourselves need to find the balance that Jesus had. He loved and loves sinners. Yet He hates sin. He hates sin so much that He gave His life to overcome it. No one knows the cost of sin better than Jesus. He said in John 12:32   And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. He went to the cross to draw the sinners He loves.

When we give in to the fear of man and compromise the truth of God's word, we diminish the work of the cross.

You might say that I and my church would never compromise the word. As I said there are many ways that the fear of man can enter into the way we do things as a church and in our individual lives. For the church, who is in charge? Who sets the agenda and the programs? Do we structure and order our worship service to be attractive and friendly to people, or do we come to worship God, seeking His leading and His presence when we come together? Are we more focused on coming and going at the right times more  than making time for God?

If we call our gathering worship, then we need to decide what or who  it is that we are worshiping. Don't get me wrong there is a need for order and structure. God is a God of order.

Genesis 1    The Creation

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. ³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

When it says that the earth was formless and void it means it was without structure it was in chaos. The Hebrew word is tohubohu.