Scandal, part 3

Sider goes on to say:
Jesus knew that his followers would live so differently from the surrounding society that the world would hate them (John 15:19). Today, unfortuntely, many people despise Christians, not for their unswerving obedience to Christ, but because of the hypocritical disconnect between Jesus' teaching and actions.
Jesus was ruthless with the materialists of his day who loved their money more than G0d. He denounced lukewarm folk who wanted both to worship God and practice sin.
ACTS: The picture of the first Chrisitans presented in the book of Acts is one of astonishing love and joyous fellowship. Dramatic economic sharing was the norm (acts 2:44,45). These early Christians were not perfect. Acts 6 describes how the Hebrew leadership neglected widows from the Greek speaking minority. They appointed seven deacons (their Greek names indicate they are all from Greek-speaking miniority! What was the result of this prompt correction of racial and economic discrimination? The last verse of the story says, "So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly." (6:7) Again, integrity and obedience in the body of Christ have powerful and evangelistic results.
My (randy) questions: Do our churches today have that kind of integrity? Do our leaders have that kind of boldness to deal with problems in a proactive way - instead of ignoring things - wishing they would just take care of themselves? I've seen far too often, and I'm sure that you have too.
ROMANS: Sider comments, "What an incredible picture of the way that faith in Christ transforms and sanctifies broken lives. If Paul is evn close to being right about what it means to be a Christian, one can only weep at the scandalous behavior of Christians today.
FIRST & SECOND CORINTHIANS: These two letters remind us not to romanticize the early church. Paul's response, however, is not lower the standards to accommodate their failures, but rather to demand repentance and holy living.
Well, we don't have the time to outline every book of the New Testament - Sider points out the call to holiness that runs throught the NT. Sider ends with the chapter on the Biblical vision with this quote -"We have seen the stunning contrast between what Jesus and the early church said and did and what so many evangelicals do today. Hopefully that contrast will drive us to our knees, first to repent and then to ask God to help us understand the causes of this scandalous failure and the steps we can take to correct it.
Amen.