Remain Above Reproach?

I constantly hear Christians attempting to "shepherd" other Believers who’s actions they believe don’t “Look Good or could be misjudged” in spite of intent. They usually say something along the lines of

“…you need to remain above reproach”

In most cases, I do believe their intentions on giving this advice is given to encourage. Yet what I’ve witnessed throughout my life is a stifling of the Holy Spirit due to fear of what others will think of you. Your Religious Reputation per say.

First let’s take a look at the Scripture they use to Back their advice… 1 Timothy 3:1-7

“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.  Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.  He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.  Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.”

These are characteristics of a Christian Leader.

Nowhere in these verses does it mention how you are accountable for how others are perceiving your actions. You're not off the hook yet though... I'll address this in a minute...
My concern is not about offending people, that's a given in this world, but my concern lays with not grieving His Spirit. I do my best to daily walk in His Spirit, and not my flesh, making decisions based on Love, and how it reflects on Him. I only want to bring Him honor, and Glory, I don't want people to see me, but to see Yahshua (Jesus), and experience His Love, His forgiveness.
His word teaches that He never did anything, or said anything unless the Spirit told Him to. He is the epitome of Love personified.

This also made Jesus  a controversial figure in society, outrageously controversial, in fact. He lived in a time that was far more extreme regarding the religious culture, with far more extreme consequences for not towing the religious party line.

It's interesting, upon reflection, to feel that on one side we like to talk about Jesus' controversial reputation, but at the same time we like to remain in the more conservative lifestyle that does not offend the religious structure and those who populate them.

We love the idea of the wildly-free Jesus, but, in our minds, we quietly hold onto the quiet, submissive Jesus. The wild Jesus, though fun to quote, makes us nervous.

One of the greatest challenges any Christian faces is the risk of falling in love with the idea of being like Jesus (WWJD?) while failing to recognize what a life lived in his footsteps truly looks like.

The life of Christ was not lived in a bubble of holy rollers, going through the same worship songs over and over, hiding away from society in their prayer meetings and revival events. Jesus was in the midst of the party of life. He was at the center of the celebration, with people, all kinds of people, from all kinds of walks of life, with all kinds of world views and lifestyles.

Jesus was in the midst of the brokenness of life.

Jesus didn't get a reputation amongst the religious as a 'glutton and a drunk' because of what he taught, but because he lived what he taught.

Religion wants everything sanitized. More than anything, religion is obsessed with maintaining a squeaky clean reputation, the very thing Jesus didn't seem to care about at all. For example, it's acceptable in modern Christian culture to hand a prostitute a flower and tell her God loves her, so long as you are on an organized 'ministry' trip and wearing a ministry branded shirt so those passing by can clearly see that you are a church person on a godly 'mission.'

But that wasn't what Jesus would do, at least I don't get that impression about him. No, he would more likely stroll up and ask how much the prostitutes rates are. Then he would probably pay her, go into the brothel with her. Then he'd talk to her for the hour, actually chat and enjoy her company, and then tell her he'd be back the next day. And he'd probably do this knowing the 'ministry' team across the road handing out flowers was watching him in disgust.

What would we think of Jesus if we saw him pay a prostitute, go into the brothel with her and come out an hour later with a smile on his face? We'd probably think he wasn't really the Christ after all. Ah, yes, and this was exactly the problem of the Pharisees, wasn't it? Jesus failed to live up to their idea of the Christ, which was, coincidentally, the exact image of their own religiously sanitized ideology.

As much as we love Jesus, I think until we allow our own reputation to become as trampled and dirty in the eyes of the religious as he allowed his to become, we'll never quite understand him, nor his message. Until we break free from the prison of maintaining a religiously acceptable reputation, we will continue to read about the wild Jesus in Scripture, but we'll struggle to truly understand him, and the way of life he exemplified.

Jesus was a reckless lover of people, and he refused to bow down to the religious expectation of loving from a distance. He was up close, real, and embracing of all people, from all walks of life. He was hated by the religious not for this theology, but for his love, for his love was not made up by words he spoke, but by the life he lived.

I think however something we shouldn’t lose sight when it does come to what others think or perceive of your actions is in 1 Corinthians 8:9-13

“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.  Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”

So if you are going to take a position of Leadership although you have the right, Consider these words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:13-23

“Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.  To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.  I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."

When all is said and done. What does it Really Mean to remain above reproach?
In a nut shell... Live your Life in a Way that if someone does try to condemn you or lie about you, That No one would believe them because of the way you live your life.
Let everything you do be out of Love. Let all that you do point back to Him. remember you don't want people to see you...you want Them to see Jesus through you.

There is a balance between disregarding what the religious community thinks of your actions compared to knowing if you’re causing someone else to fall because they do not understand what you know. Their Faith is at a different level. We need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. But never Let “Fear” of your reputation being tarnished Stifle the Holy Spirit. Everything Jesus Did was What the Father wanted.

It's a daring thought, a wild, revolutionary act, to consider your religious image in society 'rubbish' (to quote the Apostle Paul) in order to come to truly know Christ. But I believe it's worth it. You might end up with a reputation like Jesus: "Here is a glutton and a drunk, and worse, a friend of prostitutes and sinners." . . . but isn't it Jesus we hope to be like in any case?

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The Truth about Tithing

 

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." Malachi 3:10     Without a doubt, the Scripture above is one of the most misunderstood and poorly interpreted verses of our time. What is not understood or explained is that the only people obligated to tithe were farmers, herdsmen and those Levites who were servants to the kohenim (preists) (see Numbers 18:21-24 & Nehemiah 10:37). No one else. The tithe was about food ... not about money. It was the Father's method of feeding the servants of the kohenim! Those Levites, who were servants to the kohenim, gave a tithe of the tithe (1%) total to the kohenim (see Numbers 18:25-29 & Nehemiah 10:38). The kohenim were not required to tithe but were expected to give freewill vow offerings ... which they were, at the time, stealing - (Malachi 1:13-14.)

When the Promised Land was divided up among the Tribes of Israel, all the tribes were given land ... except for Aaron's tribe (The kohenim), the Priestly Tribe of the Levites, who were loaned non-inheritable farmland and pastureland around the Levitical cities. They used these lands to raise and feed the animals which were given to them as tithes and offerings (see Joshua 20,21 & Numbers 35). Further, since they only worked in the Temple one week out of twenty-four, they spent the remainder of their time farming, raising animals, and learning crafts to build and maintain the temple.

Another misunderstood fact is that the tithe was only concerning the increase (not the total or the gross) since the increase was proof of the Father's blessings on His land year after year. In other words, if a herdsman had 100 sheep and in the spring the lambs that were dropped were 30, he would tithe out 3 lambs - the best 3 of the 30 and those that were the firstborn of each womb; 10 percent of the increase. So, in this scenario, the herdsman would have 130 sheep (total or gross) and his tithe obligation was 3 lambs (10 percent of the 30 that were his increase) - not 13 as so many would have you believe. Further, merchants, fishermen, bankers, artisans, etc., did not pay tithes ... the apostles never paid tithes, Paul never paid tithes and, in fact, no Jew outside of Israel ever paid a tithe.


So ... What Is Malachi 3 Talking About?

Verse 9 reads: You have cursed Me with a curse, for you are robbing Me, this nation, all of it! The reference here is to local kohenim who were getting their food (tithes) ... and keeping the best for themselves without sending 10 percent (of their 10 percent) to Jerusalem! The kohenim clearly stole the Levites' portion of the tithe in Nehemiah 13:5-10 and, consequently, the Levites went home because the Levites were starving. In short, Malachi 3 is talking about crooked preists cheating their Levite servants and robbing Elohim (God).

And what do we see today? Crooked clergy, pastors and TV evangelists using scripture to rob you in the name of God / Elohim. They use this Scripture to tell you that if you tithe to them, God will open the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing that is greater than you can receive; the more money you give to them, the more money God will give to you ... and this is nothing short of an out and out lie! Yahshua (Jesus) and Sha'ul (Paul) said the elders of the church should get secular jobs and help give to the needy (see Acts 20:29-35).

They ignore the same blessings and curses found in Deuteronomy 28:12 & 28:23-24 ... and they ignore Galatians 3:10. In reality, they put their church under the curse of the law by expecting Elohim to bless them for obedience to the law ... which means all of the law.

Granted, there are many teachers who, having been taught the same and being bound by traditional thinking into not thinking at all, sincerely believe they are teaching a truth ... but if they knew the real truth of what the Father's Word is saying, they would change their tune. The sad story is, they are suppose to know the Scriptures well enough to know better than this! But, like so many things (like knowing what the Father's Name is) many teachers ... and students of the Father's Word, too ... are too lazy to learn for themselves what the Father's Word actually says; they fall prey to believing what they are told by others who are just as lazy about studying the Father's Word - and so we have the blind leading the blind.

Don't misunderstand me ... we need to give, give intelligently and give freely ... we should certainly help others and support those who are working for the Good News ... but tithe? ...No.

As the apostle Sha'ul (Paul) said "if you try to keep some of the Mosaic Law you have to keep all of the Mosaic Law;" he taught the gentiles to give not to the local churches but to the poor in Jerusalem.

Lastly, if someone points out that Abraham freely gave tithes because it was the Father's will (Genesis 14:21 being the key text), consider this:

• The Bible does not say that Abraham freely gave this tithe.

• Abraham's tithe was not from his own personal property, his wealth or his income.

• Abraham kept nothing for himself; he gave everything back.

• Giving 10 percent of the spoils of war to the local chieftain was normal pagan practice and Abraham, as a guest in those lands, merely followed the prevailing local customs ... and the rest was given over to satan's minister, the King of Sodom, and his coalition which Abraham assembled. Abraham, essentially, divested himself 100 percent of the ill gotten gains of war.

• Abraham did this one time, and one time alone and never tithed out of the Father's provisions in his life.

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