Message to the Body of Christ
If you approach someone living recklessly from a Christ-like perspective, you do not start with what they are doing wrong. Just hear me out. I know we've been taught, or many of us have been taught to address the elephant in the room head-on. But what did it accomplish? Did communities change? Did those young men or women come to Christ? Perhaps a few, but with what kind of mindset? We wouldn't know. All we know is that they chose Christ right? But is it authentic, real, or genuine? Or is it fear-based. Did they choose Christ feeling condemned, feeling utterly miserable and unworthy? To some extent I won't refute someone coming to Christ feeling unworthy, or feeling ashamed. But, if the way we presented Christ to that person leads them to choose Christ out of shame, or feeling condemned because of what we said to them — then it's not the whole truth. Why do I say so? Because...you start with who they already are — even if they cannot see it yet.
Because in this framework, reckless behavior is not rebellion against God.
It is amnesia about identity. This is what happens when Jesus appears to the people for Israel. He could've condemned them and make them feel guilty for failing God. But He started with the "who" they truly are, and not the "who" they thought they were. He address social matters, healed, listened to their questions and critique, but He started with who they are and always pointed to the Father — through everything He said and did before the people of Israel. Why? Because He not only wanted them to believe Him, but wanted them to see, and hear that everything He was sent to do was to remind of the Source (know as Father) Whom they forgot.
He did not say: “You must change.”
He was saying: “You are more than what you are settling for.” in other words, He reminded them who they were to the Father. He was reminding them of their place in the Father. That's why He said, "Before Abraham was, I am."
In other words: Jesus wanted them to start living by the life of their creator and not by the life they had built for themselves.
He was not confronting sin first. He was calling forth memory. Calling forth a people who forgot who they were, and who forgot the source of their strength.
He was not saying:
I am not above you.
I am not here to fix you.
I am not here to manage your behavior.
I am here to witness who you truly are until you can see it too.
That is not man-made theology — it's Agape love in person.
If I were to make this personal, I'd say Jesus would say:
“I’m not judging you. I just see you living beneath who you really are. You are not a problem to solve — you are a life that has forgotten its own worth.”
That’s the essence of the gospel.
He was not offering escape from hell.
He was offering return to their genesis.
He did not come to shame them, but show them. He did not shame them because shame strengthens reckless behavior. And this led to the amnesia they had when it came to the Father. Because in their minds, they were not only unworthy of God, but God was too far away from them —a sinful people.
But Jesus Christ the Son of God, showed them that God never wrote that script — they did. That's why, everytine Jesus said something about God, or the Sabbath, or the truth — they called it blasphemy.
When someone is seen as dirty, they live dirty. Jesus revealed that this was never God's intent for man to think or behave this way. He reminded the people of His time that this type of mindset was a result of not knowing what was meant to be known.
When someone is seen as treasured, they begin to rise. That's why Jesus said in John 20: 17, (NIV), “Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Why does this matter? Because when He would ascend, then all people who were trapped in the darkness of their minds, would come to the light, so that their works might be revealed to be accomplished by God. In other words, they'd see that it is by God's own doing that they are in Christ — and not their own.
And one more truth
You cannot awaken someone by arguing doctrine.
You awaken them by seeing them truly. This is what Jesus did, and that's why He said in Matthew 5:14, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden."
This is why Jesus did not start with behavior.
He started with belonging. He wanted them to see what the Father had always known.
Tell me — what do you see?
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