SO WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

What is the difference between the Christians, and the rest of the world? Is there any difference at all, between the Christians and the rest of the world? 

SO WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE? Everything!!! Yes, you read it correctly. Everything about a Christian is different from the rest of the world. Beginning with our thoughts, words and deeds, and going deeper into the values, ethics and principles we believe in, and uphold. Everything is not only different, but is in the opposite direction of what the world believes and promotes.

The Christian ethic, if I may use this word, is not just a New Testament development. Many of us unconsciously have this erroneous dichotomy that, Old Testament is different from the New Testament. No, not at all. If that is the case, then the whole Jesus thing is a hoax, and falls flat on the ground.

It is our faulty and erroneous understanding that has made us think in such myopic terms – Old Testament is different from the New Testament. Have you read in the gospels, the words of Jesus…
– “21 YE HAVE HEARD THAT IT WAS SAID BY THEM OF OLD TIME, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22 BUT I SAY UNTO YOU, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” – Matthew 5:21-22
– “38 “YOU HAVE HEARD THAT IT WAS SAID, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 BUT I TELL YOU not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” – Matthew 5:38-39

The above are the righteous standards, that God wanted from His “Chosen People.” However, Jesus, the very God Himself, had to rectify the error in the interpretation of the Old Testament laws, by giving to the people, what was originally and actually intended by God, when He first gave the law. Let us not forget that Jesus is the Word of God, who was with God, and who is God… John 1:1-5. Sadly, “..the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.”

John Stott, one of the most eminent biblical scholars of our times, and a true servant of the LORD Jesus Christ, has these words to offer, about the Sermon on the Mount, and its inalienable link to the Old Testament.
– “The Old Testament is the Gospel in the bud, the New Testament is the Gospel in full flower. The Old Testament is the Gospel in the blade; the New Testament is the Gospel in full ear.”

Therefore let us not fiddle around with our tiny little fingers, what the Eternal LORD has set in stone, and make the righteous law of the LORD, to speak our language, and support our cowboy adventures. The Church has gleefully prostituted for colonisation, slavery, racism and ethnic-cleansing in the past. The Church History is replete with examples, if only one cares to see. 

Have we forgotten the whitewashing, the Pharisees and the Sadducees got from the LORD, on how they have abused their God given authority, in subverting the law of the LORD, to suit their ideologies, and to speak their language? Let us not let that leaven to creep into us. Right is right and wrong is wrong – whether it is a Jew or a Gentile – for there is no difference – all are one, all are the same, and all are equal – the fallen and lost human beings – in the sight of YAHWEH, the Eternal One.
– “20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” – Isaiah 5:20

May the LORD help us through these dark times, that we would shine for our Redeemer, and Him alone.