There is a basic foundation problem in the Church : honesty. Most of us have been conditioned not to be honest. Think about it. What happens when someone is honest about their failures, their sins or their temptations in the Body of Christ? Exactly. The place that is meant to be the safest place on earth is actually one of the scariest places.
We have gotten it wrong and we can see that by what Jesus taught Nicodemus when Nicodemus came looking for answers to questions he didn't even understand. Take a minute and walk through this with me:
"God did not send his Son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its Savior and rescue it!" John 1:17
That is perhaps our first wrong turn right there. We spend more time condemning the world than we do in participating in Jesus' mission to rescue it. How do we miss this? How do we forget that while we were the enemy of God Jesus died for us? How do we forget that we have all fallen short of the glory of God? We came from this world. We were products of it. And those who we spend so much time condemning and tearing down have the same potential as we had to be rescued. If they are without Jesus, the source of life itself, how can we expect them to act like they do have him? Crazy.
If we get this part wrong then we probably miss the next point:
"So now there is no longer any condemnation for those who believe in him, but the unbeliever already lives under condemnation because they do not believe in the name of God's beloved Son." v. 18
So there is a condemnation, but not from us and not for what most Christians think. We spend so much energy in tearing down people for their sin that we miss this point. The real danger is not the sin but their failure to accept the solution. We keep demanding that they change their behaviour but behaviour cannot change until the heart does and the heart is only transformed by Jesus. So the solution is not conformity but transformation by knowing Jesus. Knowing Jesus is an invitation not an accusation. No one can be forced, tricked or manipulated to kneel before Jesus. It only works when it is a surrender of the heart provoked by love, in response to Jesus' love. It's not the words we speak unless those words have been empowered by an overflowing heart.
Now we get to the heart of the problem that effects all of us and the atmosphere of the Church:
"And here is the basis for their judgment: The Light of God has now come into the world, but the hearts of people love their darkness more than the Light, because they want the darkness to conceal their evil." v. 19
The purpose here is not to have the things hidden in the darkness exposed for condemnation but for healing. Disease must be revealed before it can be dealt with. If it remains undetected it will continue to grow and destroy until the result is death. When a person is willing to have their rebellious ways exposed to the Light then they are expressing a desire for healing. This is more than a one time act, it is also part of our daily growth, our "daily work out your salvation". It is not good enough to kick out the demon. If we fail to daily allow the Light to occupy that space then the demon is coming back with friends. There is constant exposure to the Light.
The problem is, how can we promote such a culture of honesty in the face of the age old culture of condemnation? This is especially true for our leaders. How can they lead by example if their example is going to get them fired? I know of no perfect person and yet we force our leaders to hide their "demons" and have the facade of perfection so that we can apply the same false expectation to the rest of the Church. Only the wicked are suppose to be hiding from the light, not the believers:
"So the wicked hate the Light and try to hide from it, for their lives are fully exposed in the Light." v. 20
Jesus never intended that the Church would be a toxic place, being a killer of grace and forgiveness. The Body is suppose to be a place of healing, reconciliation and growth. This can only exist in an atmosphere of trust and love where people are not afraid to allow the Light to expose the things that would try to separate us from God. Read this:
"But those who love the truth will come out into the Light and welcome its exposure, for the Light will reveal that their fruitful works were produced by God." v. 21
Underline "who love the truth". Love is a thing of trust. It empowers us to do things we would not do in ourselves. It is the reason Jesus said "Love will empower you to obey my commands". Love is not just the enabler of our confession but is also the atmosphere of a healthy church that can handle the truth. Love does not guarantee it wouldn't be messy but it does make sense of the mess. Love trusts that it is indeed the work God produces and not reliant on mere appearances.
I do not know where we got this desire to present perfection to the world. It fails just on the basis that it doesn't exist. What is attractive to everyone is authentic love that is powerful enough to stand up under truth and desires to see people healed instead of appear perfect.
Does that make sense to you?
I hope so because there are a lot of hurting people sitting in our churches too afraid to seek healing for those broken places. They are too afraid because we have not developed a culture that celebrates and supports honesty. Our desire for the person must be bigger than our desire for neatness. We have that very interesting motto, "Love the sinner and hate the sin" but much of the Church has no idea what that looks like. It starts by understanding that the person is more important than the situation, the argument, the hurt and the sin. The sooner we can start celebrating people the sooner we will be celebrating their healing.
Go ahead, get messy.
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