Whose Side Is God On?
In the year 1095 Pope Urban II proclaimed the first crusade to reclaim the “holy land.” For nearly 200 years until 1291, massive blood shed occurred in the “holy land” as the Catholic Church waged war upon the Muslims.
Both sides claimed to have God on their side.
From 1861 to 1865 over 600,000 union and confederate soldiers died in the American Civil War.
Both sides claimed to have God on their side.
2015 the Islamic State persecutes the Christian Church in South West Asia.
Both sides claim to have God on their side.
Even though they approve of, and celebrate, the murder of unborn children under the guise of “choice” and they celebrate sexual immorality, through the normalizing of pornography and so called “same sex marriage,” America claims God is on their side. Their money says, “In God we trust.”
Funny. The Third Reich (Hitler’s crew) also believed that God was on their side. They even wore belt buckles that read “Gott Mit Uns”…or God with us…
Whose side is God on?
Claiming that God is on your side happens everywhere. And it is not always on such a grand scale as the Crusades, nor is it always between enemies like ISIS and the Coptic Church. Nor is it so blatantly obviously false as with Hitler’s regime or the current state of America. It also happens on a much smaller scale. Within congregations, under the same roof, between people in the pews…between brothers and sisters in Christ.
I was recently emailed by someone who wished to remain anonymous, “My friend and I are having a dispute. He thinks (this way) and I think (this other way)…[then a bunch of stuff about stuff]..He says that he is right, but I am sure that I am right. Who side is God on? {then a bunch of other stuff}…”
We have all seen it haven’t we? Some offence happens. Some sin, something, maybe a deal gone bad. Maybe a disagreement, or something bigger. Who knows. One side flings some mud at the other, and the other side flings it back. Both claim to be right. Both will not back down, refusing to remove the log from their own eye, while throwing mud in their brother’s eyes.
Both sides claim to have God on their side.
And it drags on for another day.
Both sides continue to demonize each other.
Both sides paint the other as evil caricatures, incapable of good, incapable of God’s love, pointing at, and talking about, the other’s specks, while failing to see their own logs, flinging more mud and dragging His name through it each time they scoop up another handful.
“Did you hear what he did?”
“Can you believe her!?”
“She is such a…”
Then the Bible comes out… and they start to use it to bash each other, rather than admonish, rebuke, encourage, and build them up in love.
“Legalist.”
“Pharisee.”
“Lawless.”
“Corrupt.”
“Unregenerate.”
“Self Righteous.”
“Wolf in sheep’s clothing…”
“He has the Devil in him…”
Most of us are probably guilty of this to some degree. Let’s be honest. And if not, then almost certainly, we have witnessed it in some form. And the only solution to the problem, if you talk to either of the combatants, is that the “other side” ought to just give in and give up. Both sides wrap themselves up in the “arrogance of righteousness.” Self-righteous pride takes hold. Both sides are right in their own eyes. Both sides claim to have “scripture to back them up.”
Both sides claim to have God on their side.
We ought to be careful, when claiming that God is on our side. What is the reason we think he is on our side? Because we think we are right? Because we have such a great knowledge of the Bible? Because of pride? Is it because we think we are holier than the other person? Smarter? More educated?
Why is God on one side and not the other side?
God is not on your side or my side because of anything we did, or didn’t do, no matter how “right” we think we are. And if we are dragging people through the mud, or flinging it at others in an effort to make ourselves look better, then we ought to look and see where we are really standing.
Are standing we on God’s side? Because God is on His own side. He is on Jesus’ side. None of us is worthy to have God on our side.
Some may point to Romans 8:31 or the many Psalms that show that God is for us. And it is true. God really is for us. But how is God for us? To quote RC Sproul commenting on Romans 8:31,
“We can be confident that the Lord will do only what furthers our ultimate good. To do this, after all, is a logical consequence of the great sacrifice He made when He gave up His Son for us on the cross. If He could do that, then surely He would never do anything that would make that sacrifice worthless. He would never deny us any of the blessings that are promised to us on account of Christ’s atoning work.”
And what is our ultimate good? Our ultimate good is God Himself. He will bring us more of Himself as He makes us more like Jesus. Yes. God is for us. He promises to bring the work he started in us to completion. But he is not for our petty battles. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation, not the ministry of mud slinging. We are to love each other, as he loved us. Forgiving each other, as he forgives us. God is for us, only as we are in Christ. He sees Jesus standing in our place. If you are member of the Church, if you are saved by Jesus Christ, then yes, God is on your side, or more precisely, God has brought you over to his side… so let us be careful. Perhaps, a better question to ask than, “Is God on our side?,” would be, “Are we in him?” “Are we in a Covenant relationship with Jesus Christ?” And if we are, then we get to be like Jesus and look graciously upon each other in love.
Let’s do that!
Let’s take the logs out of our own eyes so we can see clearly to remove the specks in our brothers eyes. Let’s put the mud away. Let’s wash our hands. Let’s encourage and admonish each other in love.
Let’s love each other…because…after all… God is on our side.
Are we on His?
