Christians Are Being Called Out. Now.

Someday its going to come out.  Someday it will be revealed.  Someday the connection between your professed allegiance to Jesus and your actions toward others in this world will be called out.

The proof of faith in Jesus, the proof that the God of love is truly in those who claim Jesus as their Way, is a love for humanity. A love that lays down our life for the Other and to provide for them when they are in need (1 John 3).

The Trump era is revealing across the world how UN-Christian the faith of many really is.  Trump isn't the core issue here, but his is demeanor and actions have opened a way for religious Christians with UN-Christlike attitudes to raise their hypocritical voices. As a friend of mine said, "at best it certainly reveals how untrained we are in the ways of Jesus and at worst how misdirected our faith in Jesus has become".  If this era is doing the Kingdom any favors it is this: it is separating the sheep from the goats.

If you say you are following the Way of Jesus, but you neglect the oppressed, the immigrant, the poor, the incarcerated and the marginalized in general, you CANNOT say that the life of Jesus is in you (Matthew 25:31-46). Jesus will eventually call you on it.  How we treat the marginalized is a reflection of our love for Jesus.

Jesus' words: "the poor you will always have with you" have been difficult to understand.  In one sense it can be taken as an admission by Jesus Himself that we will never, even in God's Kingdom, be able to alleviate poverty of any kind. I think Jesus was saying that "if you are truly my follower, you will deliberately place yourself in proximity to the poor, because that's what I do".  Always have the poor with you.

Place yourself in proximity to the poor, because that is where Jesus is.  Its how He identifies you are His.