Most of the worst things that have happened in history have happened because of bad ideas. When sin happens, it first goes bad in the mind, or the heart, of the sinner: long before it comes to fruition.
Isn’t it ironic that so many people in history have gotten themselves all wrapped around their axles by bad ideas? Whether it’s dictatorship, hard left (or hard right) policies in a other countries, or a thousand year history of monarchies gone bad, those terrible things also usually happen with support. Often times, the support is widespread. After all, the most populous nation on the planet (as well as the one with the largest statistical population of Christians), communist China, is still a communist dictatorship despite the idea of Marxism being defeated when the Soviet Union fell apart over thirty years ago.
Bad ideas have a way of taking root. And isn’t it also ironic about bad ideas that they often start out with decent intentions? Take the Jewish leaders of antiquity. They had spent over a thousand years formulating a system of religious codes to bring people closer to God. In reality, those codes heaped ‘unkeepable’ rules and standards on the people, and ended up causing division and harm. And it all started with the best of intentions, with leaders devising ways for people to better keep the laws of Moses that were handed down by God Himself. By the time Jesus arrived, the laws themselves had become oppressive and impossible for ordinary people to keep.
Now take Paul. He states quite clearly that he was a zealous Jew (though not a “Zealot”, who were a different Jewish sect during Paul’s time). Paul, as Saul, had been enthusiastic for enforcing this myriad of Jewish codes. He had eagerly approached each day, looking for ways to expose, then destroy, the people who put their faith in the risen Christ. There couldn’t be a worse idea than this, even if it had been founded with the intention of preserving the known traditions of how God had been worshipped for over 1600 years.
Then came Jesus. He made the difference; He retuned Paul’s heart. Jesus replaced the terrible zealotry of murder with the unending hope of peace. With Jesus came overturning the terrible ideas of oppressing people and replacing those ideas with the freedom of God’s resurrection. God’s Spirit would introduce His Son into every welcoming heart, and every person could then be adopted into God’s chosen people, His chosen family. It happened then, it happens still today.
For further reading: Matthew 15:2, Acts 21:20 Galatians 1:15
Lord Jesus, Your holy ideas of peace, love, and mercy: may they live in my words and actions today.
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