Inclusionary

I Thessalonians 3:12-13 (KJV) Says, "And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." Matthew 22:37-39 (KJV) Says, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Mark 2:17 (KJV) Says, "When Jesus heard it, He saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

In the above passage of scripture taken from I Thessalonians, Paul advises that we are to abound in love one toward another, and by definition the word abound means to be plentiful in. We are instructed that we are to abound in love toward ALL men, and to continue in love until Jesus returns. In the Passage taken from Matthew, Jesus gives the two greatest commandments and they are first to love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul, and secondly to love our neighbor as we do ourselves. In the verse taken from Mark, Jesus makes it clear that He was eating with lost souls because they are the ones who needed to come to accept Him as their Lord and Savior not the righteous who were already saved.

This past Sunday morning I listened to a minister who was a guest speaker, and something he said bothered me immensely. He said he was going around introducing himself to various pastors in the area, and that one pastor didn't invite him to speak at his church. He went on to state that the reason for this was that the church that pastor was from was "inclusionary." I immediately thought to myself well I certainly hope so. Now I don't see the necessity of specifying what group he felt should not be included  by this church, or what he felt certain individuals were doing that should prompt the church to exclude them. He, however, had no problem sharing his opinion of who should be excluded and why with the congregation. The bottom line is if he felt the church was full of sinners well surprise, all churches are. As Romans 3:23 (KJV) Says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

I had to resist the urge to slip up my hand, introduce myself, and ask him if he felt that as Christians we should exclude anybody? I wanted to ask him how many people would remain in the church building, if we ask every sinner to stand up and walk out? I wanted to ask him if he felt excluding someone demonstrated love toward ALL men?  I wanted to ask him if he thought that Jesus excluded anyone as he sat at the table with those that were lost? I wanted to ask him to please explain to me how a church filled with Christians who are to show love toward ALL men could be anything other than "inclusionary" and still call themselves true Christians?

Unfortunately, this pastor is not the only Christian I've heard make these kind of statements. I've heard similar statements made on some Christian television shows, and each time I hear anything remotely similar it strikes a nerve with me. These are exactly the type statements and behaviors that run lost souls away from the Lord, taking with them the idea that all Christians are guilty of having a holier than thou attitude. It is of the utmost importance that we as Christians walk in love, and that we follow the example Jesus set for us to follow. We are to be understanding, kind, compassionate, forgiving, merciful, and loving. We should include everyone who wishes to attend worship services at our churches, and if there is something they are doing outside of church that doesn't coincide with being a Christian let God deal with their heart through the Holy Spirit. I'm not saying that we should condone behavior by others that isn't befitting of a  Christian. I'm simply saying that as disciples of Jesus Christ we are to lead lost souls to him, and if we are not "inclusionary" we may very well be running some away. When I stand before Almighty God on Judgment day, running even one soul away from Him is not something I want to answer for.

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