As I type this, I think about one of the things I care about in life. What is that? People. Why do I care about them? God cares about people. For years, I've seen them degraded, disregarded, dehumanized and destroyed. Stereotypes disregard and destroy people. The self-esteem movement taught us how to degrade them. The industry of immorality leads the way into dehumanizing them. And finally, Christians have been excessively judgmental and reclusive from their existing needs. I will start by explaining how people are important.
God created man in His own image. (Genesis 1.26) We have an eternal soul that is a part of us. We must respect mankind because of his soul. Genesis 9.6 says, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image." Although God knows the number of a man's days, He will still hold the one accountable who disregarded that image by murdering. James talks about the evil of the tongue in the third chapter of his book.
"With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." (3.9, 10)
If we profess to be of God, then we must not profane those who bear His image. This is hypocrisy and does not come from the Spirit of God, but from our sinful nature and desires. (James 3.15) A person is important because of his soul.
A person is important because of the life that God gave them. Life is a gift. The Old Testament reminds us that "the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 7.11). The nation Israel was given specific directions not to eat flesh "with its life, that is, its blood" still in it. (Genesis 9.4) As we saw from Genesis 9.6, God will hold man accountable to the innocent blood he sheds.
"A man's steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?" (Proverbs 20.24) God directs the paths of man. We must remember that God has given everyone a unique background and story that brought them to where they are. The prophet Jeremiah speaks out of this knowledge when he says, "I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps." (10.23) To disregard this history, is to disregard the work of God through an individual's life.
God made us in His image, that is, with eternal souls. He gave us one of the most precious gifts, life. He also gave us the memories and history that is wondrously unique to every person. And for thousands of years, man has scarred, destroyed and forgotten what God has made.
Stereotypes allow us to categorize people into groups with predetermined feelings, actions, backgrounds and even appearance. We have disregarded soul of that individual we judged as belonging to a stereotype. We have become the judges of who is important to us because of what circles we desire to be a part of. A person is no longer unique because we destroyed in our minds what God has created because of our pleasures.
Self-esteem lifts us up above everyone else. The world told us that we deserve the best and we believed it. In our efforts to make ourselves feel as good as we could about ourselves, we degrade everyone around us. The road to gratification is easy and quick. It does not have places nearby it by which to take rest and thought, neither does it encourage thoughtfulness. The urge to feel good does not care about the feelings of others in its facilitation. Cutting people down is the quickest way to make us appear higher than we really are. It destroys anyone without restraint and disregards everything about them, including their soul, life and history.
Immorality dehumanizes people. Man and a woman become tools of pleasure who live only to gratify it. This is one of the most popular industries in the world next to self-esteem. Men dress to appeal and women dress to appease. Humans are no longer seen in the image of God, but in the image of man. A young girl, raised without a knowledge of the existence her soul very easily becomes a machine of lust. The soul is lost in the enticement of living for the moment and what pleasures that moment offers. Life becomes a right, instead of a gift, just like how every other pleasure becomes a right. Executives of clothing companies, movie industries and record labels all collect their money at the end of the day just like the prostitutes on the street do. Immorality sells, but what is sacrificed in return is gone forever, scars forever and ignores what God has created as unique, eternal and important.
Christians are guilty just as much as the world is. When we disregard who a person is, we do so in God's face. We, as Christians, have judged people by what they wear and what they do even more than the world does. Jesus never refused to heal someone because of who they were or what the world thought of them. He ate with the immoral and sinful people of the world and went to the places where they were to be found. In spite of His example, the Church remains huddled in their Christian bubble, trying to keep ourselves separate from the world in every respect. If we are to fulfill the Great Commission, we need to be willing to do whatever it takes to place a Christian with the Gospel inside the circle of any group of unbelievers.
I become righteously indignant when anyone tells me that I should disregard who a person is and where they come from. Many well-meaning people have slid to that extreme. And this, I believe, dishonors God because of what God has done in that person's life. They act as though God has not been working in that individual's life at all. Christians do more damage to the Gospel when they enter the life of an unbeliever without care for that person's needs and history. I believe that in order to reach someone efficiently with the Gospel, I need to be respectful of their background and be prepared to expend myself on any emotional and physical needs they have as a result of that. Jesus fed thousands of people at once. He "saw" and "had compassion" on the sick and the maimed and He healed them. He set the example for us to follow to attend to those who are needy as a means of preaching the Kingdom of God through. It becomes, then, cruel and unusual for a Christian to ignore these basic needs even for the most righteous of motives and intentions.
I feel very strongly about all of this. I pray that this has touched you, the reader, in a way that will find its application through your life. I do not propose myself as an example to you, but I do propose the life of Christ and His Apostles as servants of God as your examples. I encourage everyone to study the works of Christ and how He offered Himself for our sins. Put your faith into action and find a way to witness to that friend you've known for years who always found a listening ear and a compassionate heart in you. It is just as cruel and unusual to keep the good news of our salvation from the suffering world as it is to ignore their basic needs.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
~Curtis~
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