Lord, Save Us From Your Followers

We had a chance to preview this movie last fall, and while there is a great start to get people starting to think things deeper, there was one thing missing. One can’t help but see it was a big glaring omission.
While I don’t think you would find many who would disagree that we need to love, respect, and treat others with kindness, the question becomes what love and respect looks like. When you really love and respect someone, you will tell them the truth. For instance if Chris is wearing an ugly shirt, I will tell him it doesn’t look flattering. If I cook a dish that Chris really doesn’t like, Chris will tell me. Respectfully, and honestly, but never avoiding the truth. If you omit the truth, you open yourself up to more problems. Chris realizes the shirt isn’t flattering some other way, and now realizes I was lying and He looks foolish. Or I make the dish again thinking Chris likes it…and you can fill in the rest
“Jesus Save Us from Your Followers” takes us up to the edge of the pool, but we never really jump in. You can’t dangle your toes in the pool and call it swimming. While it can be uncomfortable to share the truth, it is always best in order to avoid further problems. What people trapped in the homosexual lifestyle do not need to “like us”. They need to know that their problem is not being gay. There problem is that they have not learned to trust and believe God. Their sin is ultimately unbelief. But there is hope. We too at one time lived in unbelief.
Today’s JQ verse is so perfect: John 3:17. “God sent His son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him”. He came to “Testify to the Truth”, John 18:37.
God does not ever just turn a blind eye to sin. But He does offer salvation from the sin that separates us from Him. How can someone receive that salvation if they see no need of it? At the end of the day, the evangelical Christian and the homosexual both walk away feeling better about themselves. But there was no “transformation by the renewing of the mind” talked about in Romans.
Our goal, as Christians, is not to get people to like us. Jesus said, “They will hate you, but remember they hated me first”. Jesus did not want us to concern ourselves with being liked by others. Our goal must always be to point others to the salvation from the sin that holds them captive. This is how we love our enemies. Dan Merchant never leaves his comfort zone of -if they like me, maybe they’ll like Jesus too. The people he spoke to all walked away still dead in their sin, with no desire to escape the bondage that separates them from God.