HOW DO YOU feel when someone you know and admire does something you cannot imagine?
Many will want to cancel them out.
HUDSON TAYLOR spoke out against missionaries who did not have what they needed for their work. He did not realize that money wasn't everything.
WHEN JEZEBEL came after Elijah, he hid in the cave and sulked. (I Kings 19:9-18)
One will think a man of God wouldn't behave that way—if he lived in our day, many of us would have cancelled him.
WHEN GOD called Jonah, he refused to go to Nineveh. He went as far west to a sprawling urban city called Tarshish.
And God sent a storm to the sea.
When he was thrown into the water, God commanded a whale to swallow him and take him to Nineveh.
Jonah thought that the people of Nineveh did not deserve grace—after all, they were Israel's enemies.
He felt that they had abandoned all hope of redemption, but he was wrong.
Do not think that what you feel about someone is true? Like Jonah, you may be wrong.
He cried to God in the belly of the whale, saying, "When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love." (Jonah 2:7-8)
God spared his life and gave him a second chance.
PETER STRUGGLED with going to the home of a gentile until God spoke to him from heaven. (Acts 10)
Moses was a fugitive and a murderer, yet God called him to go to Egypt and deliver his people. (Exodus 3)
Paul was a terror to believers when Jesus called him to become an apostle. (Acts 9:1-19)
These were flawed men with perfect messages.
This acknowledgement is not to condone anyone's misdeed but to remove our erroneous beliefs, especially in these tough times when many of our church leaders have been unimpressive.
IN THE JEWISH CULTURE, unrighteous actions had severe consequences for some and almost no consequences for others—and even when the law was equal, the execution was not.
In his days, Jesus sat near the well and discussed a woman's sin without condemning her. (John 4:7-26)
And when some people brought a woman caught in adultery to him, he crouched between the sinner and the stones until her accusers left—thus preventing her cancellation. (John 8:4-11)
How do we live in a cancel culture?
WE MUST tell the truth to the people in power. When Jesus saw people buying and selling in the temple, he upended their tables and threw them out.
'My house shall be called of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of robbers.' (Matthew 21:13)
If people haven't lived up to your expectations, you must offer them forgiveness for whatever they have done.
We must be careful not to cut people prematurely out of our lives because of the cancel culture.
And when people's opinions differ from yours, rather than unfriend them, pray for them.
The standard is high, but that's what Jesus enjoined us to do.
BRINGING IT TOGETHER
THE MOB couldn't find the balance between compassion and accountability. But Jesus offered the woman caught in adultery understanding when the people didn't.
This week do these three things:
Have the humility to accept differences of opinion.
Approach disagreements with reason and caution.
Allow the possibility of redemption.
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