Don’t Weaponise Your Faith
Zechariah 7:9-10 This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’
If there is indeed a God in heaven, you’d want Him to be a God of love, a God of justice and a God of hope. That pretty much sums it up. So why is it then that down through the ages His people, “Christians” no less, have behaved so badly?
The Christian crusades of the 11th to 13th centuries, the Spanish Inquisition in the late 15th century, the European witch hunts of the 15th to 18th centuries, the Salem witch trials of the late 17th century (the list goes on by the way) all committed shockingly terrible, unimaginable atrocities.
And yet they each arose out of the apparently good intentions of religion – to recapture the Holy Land, to rid the church of evil and witchcraft.
So how could good intentions possibly end up turning out so badly? Answer – that’s what happens when Christians weaponise their faith. And it was never ever meant to be so.
Zechariah 7:9-10 This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’ (NIV)
Justice, mercy, compassion – that’s what God calls us to. And yet these days the weaponisation in Christianity goes on: In politics. In the environment. In the way we treat those who don’t look the same, sound the same, believe the same as we do.
So just in case you’re tempted, here’s a bit of godly advice: before you use the Bible as a weapon, use it as a mirror.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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