Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
Don’t you just love Saul of Tarsus? Paul was a Jew and Pharisee with roman citizenship. He lived in a state of privilege among his own people in Jerusalem. And just think he gave all of his privileged status away for Christ. Which man would do that but for one having an encounter with Christ. Christ as a human person probably met Paul during Christ’s lifetime. Paul’s description of his encounter with Christ after Christ’s death has to be true. Who else would leave a position of privilege to follow Christ unless he had a conversion? And look at what that encounter achieved. Paul was completely changed. He once hated the Christians and sought to kill them. His heart was cold, prideful and unloving. His mind dwelled on conceit and discrimination and hatred. And it was no other than Christ who changed him. Paul was fortunate. He had a literal, first hand and personal encounter with Christ. And that encounter changed him to the core. Paul shed all of those pent up Jewish vices and took on the virtues Christ offered. And he preached those virtues to the gentles, heathens in the eyes of the Jews. But what is truly amazing about the story of Paul is that he discovered a goodness within the gentiles, a goodness which they possessed even before Christ. He saw that humans have an innate goodness that can be encouraged and eventually perfected. These heathen gentiles may have been worshipping the Roman and Greek gods but they did not know any better. Paul showed them the love that flows from their Creator, the one invisible God whose presence is felt when the innate goodness of humanity is exposed and encouraged. Love became infectious and found a way to heal the depravity of the gentiles. Paul recognized that this goodness exists within most of humanity and Paul encouraged its growth with the help of the Holy Spirit. And grow it did. Paul and his close followers built the whole western Church under the tutelage and guiding hand of Christ himself. Paul preached but it was Christ’s own Spirit that converted humanity to bring forth within them the love, humility and brotherhood that became the Church. But with Paul, this brotherhood had to be practiced. If you did not practice what Paul preached, Paul had complete disdain for you and Paul preached exclusion for such heathens from the Church. Paul did not hate anyone, he just loved the true believers more. True believers are those who follow God’s laws, both natural and divine. The unfaithful, those who believe that they can do whatever they want without observing the law, were the heathens, heretics, haters and trouble makers. Paul excluded the unfaithful and railed against them. Don’t we still have these troublemakers around today? Except they have become wolves in sheep’s clothing. They try to deceive the faithful who retain Paul’s innate goodness. These wolves try to make the faithful believe that their innate goodness is somehow defective and hateful and discriminatory. These wolves try to make God’s people believe that the wolves deserve special treatment and should be loved in spite of their continued depravity. They try and shame the faithful and make them feel guilty if any group or any action is condemned by the faithful.. Don’t be fooled. Paul would have easily excluded these heathens and wolves in sheep’s clothing from his new Churches and we must do the same today. These wolves must be excluded today. They try and pretend that the faithful are hateful and discriminatory when the wolves are called out and excluded. In other words the wolves disguise their own hate and disrespect for the natural and divine laws by placing their guilt on the hands, heads and hearts of the true believers. This farce must stop. What is the Church afraid of? I think the churches are more worried about losing money and members than saving souls? Grow a pair like Paul did and take a stand. You only have the support of Christ to lose.
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