Why Persecutest thou me?

As I've mentioned in some of my earlier posts, I have been doing a study on the questions that Christ asked in the New Testament. It's taken a while, but I finally completed step one of the process. That is I finally finished compiling a list of all the questions he asked. Today I'd like to talk a little about the last one. 

Unless I've missed something, the last recorded question from Christ in the New Testament is "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Acts 9:4 We don't have a record of Saul giving a direct answer to this question. But based on what we know about Saul, I think he would probably have answered something along the lines of "Lord, I did not know I was persecuting thee." 

Saul's purpose in persecuting the saints was to serve God. He truly believed that he was doing God's will. He did not know that Jesus Christ was the son of God. He was doing what he thought was right, but was completely in the wrong. 

Perhaps we don't go around persecuting those that believe in Jesus Christ, but that doesn't mean we don't make the same mistake Saul did. In our efforts to stand for what is right and defend our beliefs, whatever they may be, do we ever overstep our bounds? Do we ever exercise unrighteous dominions? Do we ever take our personal opinions and treat them like gospel truth? If this is the case, we may be giving cause for Christ to ask us the same question he asked Saul so many years ago. "Why persecutest thou me?"

Like Saul likely would have, many of us may answer "Lord, I did not know I was persecuting thee." 

Christians of all denominations can get a bad rap for how they treat those who are not christian. This is sad, because the essence of Christianity is that of pure love. But I believe that, not all, but many of the poor interactions between people are caused by a lack of understanding of what one is doing. Therefore, if we desire to be good examples of Christians, we must strive to understand what we are doing and follow Christ's example when standing up for our beliefs. 

We should remember:

•  Those who have the spirit of contention are not of Christ. Although others may contend against us, we should not contend against them. 
• People are agents, not objects. It is our desire to teach so that they may act correctly of their own choice, not restrict them according to our desires.
• We do not know as much as we think we do. Only God know's all things. Thus we should be careful in our judgments.
• We should seek to understand others, rather than forcing others to understand us.
• It is best to loving, merciful and forgiving in our thoughts, words, and actions.
• Our opinions are opinions, not facts.

The point of this blogpost, for those of you who made it this far, is to invite you to reconsider how you act when you are trying to do what is right. To ponder on how those around you might feel in response to your actions, and to modify your actions accordingly. I am not asking you to stop standing up for what you believe in. Anyone who has read the New Testament knows that Saul mended his ways and continued on with the same fervor for serving the Lord. The difference was that he began to do it in the Lord's way. And that is what we all should do.

The 99 "righteous"

One scripture that has always bothered me was Luke 15:7. It's the scripture that says "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just person, which need no repentence." I completely understand why there would be great joy over a sinner that repents, but I have always felt that to say that there was more joy over the sinner than 99 righteous people makes it seem like the heavens take the righteous for granted. Furthermore the scripture doesn't really make much sense because face it, there aren't 99 of us that haven't sinned. There was only one man on earth who didn't and the fact that he never sinned and that he completed the atonement caused more joy in the heavens than possibly anything before or after. So for this and more this scripture has always bothered me.
However today I had a most interesting insight. To me it resolves my concerns and provides a more fitting interpretation of the scripture, especially when one takes into account the fact that these words were being directed towards Pharisees who were murmuring about Christ consorting with sinners.
There is a website Greekbible.com that gives the greek text for scriptures along with a variety of possible meanings for each word. Curious as to if this site could help me resolve my concerns with the scripture I decided to try it out. What I learned completely changed the scripture for me. The word that is often translated as righteous is, δίκαιος,a. The word "righteous" is a perfectly acceptable translation for this word, but Greekbible.com also says that another possible translation is "self-righteous."
Before I continue I would just like to say that I understand that it is entirely possible that Jesus truly meant for the word to be righteous. But consider with me for a second the implications if the word had actually been intended to be "self-righteous." If this is the case, Christ is giving a warning to us. He is saying that it is better to be a sinner and recognize ones sins and come unto him, than it is to be a person who professes the name of the Lord and believes themselves to not need repentance. This teaching ties in perfectly with Christ's words in Matthew 7 where Christ declares that not everyone who says "Lord, Lord"  will be accepted into the kingdom of heaven. Further it also is a much clearer answer to the murmurings of the Pharisees. Christ is not only telling the Pharisees why he is spending his time among the sinners, but he is also telling the Pharisees that their attitude of self-righteousness will do them no good in heaven.
If looked at it this way I believe it is fair to say that God does not find more joy in the repentant sinner than he does in the loyal servant, I think they all find equal joy in each other.
I sincerely hope that if you made it this far, that you found it worth your time to read it. But more than anything I hope you can see that if there are scriptural passages that bother you, with some searching and pondering you can come to an answer.

Even if you're Right, You May Still Be Wrong

"For verily, verily I say unto you he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me."

-3 Nephi 11:29

These were the words of of Jesus as he taught the Nephites about his gospel. And for me they highlight a very important truth. It's important to me, because it's something that I struggle with and I want to improve on.

If you always want to be "right" then you need to be on Christ's side. And in this scripture Christ clearly states that those that are on his side must not have the spirit of contention.

The application of this teaching is that we must realize that sometimes it is better to let others be wrong, if making them see the "right" would cause contention. Because if in seeking to proclaim truth, whatever truth it may be, you bring contention you will be wrong. This applies to sports, school, casual conversations, and serious matters. Because in the end these things are mostly temporal and it is more important that we be Christlike than that we be "right."

Lacking Faith is Lacking Trust, and That's Ok.

I think we all have read the story of Jesus walking on the water and how Peter came out to meet him. When Peter became afraid and began to sink Jesus rescued him and said "Oh thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" -Matthew 14:31 Then they walked back to the boat together. I at least have heard this story about a hundred times. But here is something I've started thinking about more recently.
I think it's fairly safe to assume that Jesus wasn't angry with Peter. I don't think that the words "Oh thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" were a reprimand.
Rather it sounds to me more like the sort of thing a parent might say to a child who has fallen over while riding a bike. After picking up the child and dusting them off a parent might say something like "you just need to peddle a little faster, don't be scared." This sort of thing isn't meant to make the child feel bad, but to point out to the child what they can do to improve.
Peter walked on water, he was doing great, and then like a wobbling child on a bike, he got scared, froze and fell. So Jesus picked him up, and told him where he needed to improve. While walking he had not had sufficient faith, and in order to be a disciple of Christ capable of performing miracles, he would need to develop more faith. It wasn't that he didn't have any faith, for heavens sake he just walked on water! but it was that he didn't have enough faith to be able to do anything in the name of Christ. And you know what? That's ok. Peter is not a horrible person because at that time he didn't have the faith necessary to finish walking to Christ. I don't think anyone has the faith sufficient to finish walking to Christ the first time, or the second time, or the third time. It's something that develops with time. We learn to walk to Christ as a child learns to walk to a parent falling, over and over again, but getting a surer footing with each try as we learn from his loving guiding arms.
In short, faith is trust. Faith in Christ is trust in Christ. You can't just decide from one moment to the next that your faith in Christ is going to go up 100 points, it's something that develops over time.
So how can this idea help you? Well let me address for a second a rather sensitive subject.

Prayers that never were answered, or that were answered with a no or promised blessing that were never realized.

Some people will tell you that God answers every prayer. This is not true. Prayers are to be given in Christ's name. And when we pray in the name of Christ we pray that which he would have us pray. Sometimes our prayers are not answered because as James said "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss." If we ask after our own selfish desires and we do not pray striving to pray as Christ would have us pray, then the prayer may very well go unanswered.
But we are imperfect beings and even when we try to ask for what is right, we occasionally ask for something that isn't right and we are told no. In these two situations those that are praying have a lack of faith. That is not to say that they have no faith, but their faith or trust in Christ and knowledge of Christ is not sufficient to have prayed in a manner that may have been better.
I have been guilty of this thousands of times, so yes you could say that I lack faith, and that's ok! It is ok that we are not perfect in our faith. When we realize that we are lacking in our faith that gives us a chance to improve! What is NOT ok is when we try to blame something else and not recognize our lack of faith. Which brings me to my last point which is probably the most sensitive of them all.

Promised blessings that  went unfulfilled.

I believe the culprit for a promised blessing that went unfulfilled in most cases is a lack of faith or trust. It may be that by a lack of faith we have failed to see the fulfilling of the blessing, or it may be that we simply did not receive the blessing. Thinking it this way can cause people to feel stung or hurt, but I hope it doesn't. At least not too much. Because in the end, the only blessings that really matter are the blessings of Eternal life. Earthly blessings are just ways for us to practice developing faith so that we may receive the blessings of Eternal life. God does not hate us for our lack of faith, he understands that it is something that we develop.
We would never get angry at a little league pitcher for failing to strike out a batter in a Major League Baseball Game. Why? because he's not ready to play at that level. In the same way God doesn't get angry if we fail to have enough faith or trust in him to receive certain blessings. Certainly he may sorrow in our suffering but he isn't angry with us.
One of the best things that we can do in a situation where we have failed to receive a blessing is to humbly accept that we are lacking in faith and approach the Lord so that we may have our weakness strengthened. For as the Lord said through the Prophet Moroni "I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."
Sometimes our weakness is our faith. And if we can have just enough faith to approach him so that he can help us with our faith, he will make us strong.