22Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.
-Shows two aspects of God toward two different groups of people. To Israel whom he's showed so much patience to over history sternness is expressed. To the Gentiles kindness. What God does to one group is used to encourage the other group. Sternness encourages the Gentiles to stay faithful. Kindness to the Gentiles encourages the Israelites to come back.
23And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
-Even though israel has been cut off, God is gracious to them also if they decide to come back. He can put them back on the vine. That really is big forgiveness.0
24After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!
-It should be easy for them to be put back in.
-This makes me think of the silent exodus of the asian churches where a huge percentage of them leave the church as they enter college. As much as they have run away, God will be willing to put them back in if they confess their sins and repent. Since they grew up in the church it should be that much easier to come back to it. Sometimes our own pride makes it seem like it'll be harder because we're to ashamed to face God and others. God is gracious. People can be gracious as well. It's hard to admit ones own wrongs, but better to be in the right place then in the wrong place because of our own stubbornness. Sigh stubbornness...what a sad killer.
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4 comments:
Just to let you know right off the bat. I was a bit irked by your comment. I don't think it's fair to comment or generalize... particularly because each person's reason for leaving the church or unique to him/herself. It's just best to understand why they left....
As you know, I have personal experience with respect to your last statement... and I have to disagree with what you say.
I don't think it's pride or stubbornness that drives people away from church. At least, I don't think it was for me... but then again, I cannot generalize to others. But for me, it was a growing disillusionment with the church... which eventually turned into a massive struggle. Everything you've been taught since you were young just sort of falls apart in your face. A lot of confusion and mental battles go on in your head... and you just don't know what to believe or what to do. It's kind of the worst feeling you can ever experience.
As a result, I think it's a lot harder to come back to church... because you do know church doctrine... yet it no longer makes sense to you. I guess some people do choose not to make sense of it and ignore it. I wouldn't call it pride though... but just trying to suppress bad feelings. And you know the old adage... "Ignorance is bliss." They choose to not understand. But others do want to sort it out. I guess I got lucky there... I hate being confused. But it took a long time.
Yeah, perhaps there is an element of pride and stubbornness... but don't forget how they must be feeling inside too. I think that's the primary factor... over pride and stubbornness. Imagine a war waging in your head. That's what it feels like. It's a huge struggle.
But God is gracious. God is way too good. And I'm extremely grateful I got a second chance.
Definition: Pride is a high or an excessive esteem of one's self for some real or imagined superiority, as rank, wealth, talents, character, etc.
When I think of pride I usually also think of what people want or want to become because of how they think of themselves. i.e. Adam and Eve's pride is one of the reasons that led them to sin. They wanted to become like God knowing good and evil. Or Satan's pride is what led to his downfall because he wanted to be more powerful than God. Maybe that falls better under covetousness or lust, but I think a high view of ourselves often leads to sinful desire.
With that said, my statement was more in regards to why people don't come back after being confronted with truth rather than why they left. Although similar, I think the reasons for leaving are quite a bit different from why a person wouldn't want to come back. Using divorce as a means to explain. When someone leaves a marriage it could be for any number of reasons. But, if they later realize the error of their ways, it could be difficult to come back into the marriage for different reasons. Or if you want to look at the movie Fireproof, the battles they faced as they wanted to leave were different from the ones when they tried to put things back together. So I want to just look at the reasons for not coming back versus why they left.
Also I want to throw in the idea that I'm using God and the church sort of synonymously when saying people left the church. I think there's a slightly different feeling when someone says "you left the church" versus "you left God" even though, in the end, its pretty much the same concept. So when saying people don't want to come back to the church, I'm really saying people don't want to come back to God.
When I made the statement of pride & stubbornness it was a generalization and I think it is also a relatively fair generalization. Let me explain why I used those two words in particular. When I look at the context of the Israelites and what was going on with them, my general feeling is that they were faced with the truth. In some sense they were very confused by it, but at the same time they understood exactly what was being said. We know they knew because they killed Jesus over his statements and they wanted to do the same for the disciples who were saying the same. They realized the content and implication of what the gospel entailed and they were rather upset over it. So when I look at people like the pharisees, Sadducees and teachers of the law my general feeling is that it was their pride and stubbornness which kept them from finally receiving the gospel. Of course there would be a number of other factors, but I don't think it would be out of bounds to name these two as more significant factors.
The other reason I chose these two was because when I think of repentance I always think of humility being one of the primary necessities in order for it to happen. With that idea in mind, regardless of the circumstances, pride must be released before humility can take place and repentance can happen. In any circumstance where I've wronged someone swallowing my pride is one of the harder things to overcome when trying to reconcile differences.
(comment is too long...must break into 2 pieces)
(None of the following is meant to be a personal attack on your feelings) When you say you were irked in my head I take that as you were ever so slightly offended or angry at the statements because they were wrong, inaccurate, or personally offensive. On one side of the coin, when you're irked it raises a flag in my heart because of our relationship and of course the thing I want to do least is offend you. But what was even more in my thoughts was the idea that being irked is different from disagreeing. If you had said "right off the bat i'll let you know that i disagree with your statements" that would have been quite a bit different from saying irked. What I'm sort of trying to say from this is that I wish I'd have seen disagreement and request for clarification or more information rather than irkedness. It's never my intention to offend anyone, but rather lay down thoughts and ideas. If irked is at the top of your list after reading my statements then the tone of voice which your using to read my words might not be accurate.
On the other side of the coin, I think it's unfair to kick out a generalization because of personal experience unless you truly think the generalization is wrong. Of course someones personal experience will always trump a generalization. Koreans love kimchi, americans love baseball, engineers are nerds, there will always be somebody that has some experience that can make the generalization false. But again, for the reasons above I think my generalization is not far off enough where I need to correct it...
...Lunch time for now...let me know what you think so far. <3
esther's definition of irked is in line with yours. so yes, i was a bit offended by your comments. i perceived them as a bit judgmental and unfair. however, my own opinions on the matter are very much colored by my own personal experiences... so it may have been hard for me to read them with an open and unbiased mind.
in hindsight, perhaps i should have explained more as to why i was irked. but i also didn't want to come off as sounding emotional and irrational... i know how much personal experiences can influence perception... as a result, it's hard to sound reasonable.
anyway, hope this clears some stuff up... if not, let me know...
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