Might the Church Control God’s Time?
Jesus says in Matthew 16: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
For generations the church has understood these words of Jesus to mean that it is the responsibility of pastors and leaders in the church to hold people accountable for the sins of which they are repentant and for the sins of which they are unrepentant. The case can be made that this means the church has charge of the forgiveness of God here on earth, thereby meaning that the church has charge of God’s time and other avenues of grace amongst those who would call themselves Christians.
But do we really have charge of God’s time and grace? I would say no. People, in their sinfulness, have made that decision on their own. They are the ones who have rejected the mercy of our Lord for the sake of what they hold as more important. The church is simply echoing that people have made their choice, and by making that choice, we must separate ourselves so that the sin that binds them might not also corrupt us and lead us into bondage.
This has also led people to try and manage more of God’s time and resources for the sake of those more deserving.
There have always been people in the church that believe they know better than God how He should act toward people. They seek to manage the time of God for their benefit, believing that the Kingdom is being led better under their supervision. We must always be careful when it comes to how the resources, including the message of grace, are used in our midst. It takes great leaders to be able to go against the will of people who believe they know best, especially when they have been able to convince a large number of people they are right, when the peoples’ belief goes against the message of Scripture. Usually these directives come with a grey area, and a case can be made as to why it is better to go in one direction versus the other. That grey area is usually expanded or strengthened by a continued set of experiences that categorize a percentage of the population as unworthy.
May we have the courage to admit when we have taken control over God’s time and resources, and not wisely managed the things by which we have ourselves been blessed. May we seek to work through that grey area and have the courage to admit that we have let the grey area be a comfort zone for what we would prefer to do. May we have the courage to admit when risk for the Kingdom’s glory has been discouraged by the authorities of this world, and we have lost heart to do the extraordinary.
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