A Word About Southern Baptists
There’s a simple solution for what ails every church in the world.
This Medium article about the SBC scandal report mentions the word “structure” 8 times, the last being the most salient:
What we end up with is unaccountable structures fundamentally incapable of self-reform,…
Any church that defines sin as a moral failure is structurally flawed because sin is believing whatever an external sources say you are. It’s right there in Genesis 3, hidden in plain view: if you believe that you are not created in God’s image, you will have the wrong beliefs about everything else.
To wit, the greatest command to love your neighbor as yourself, to treat others as you want to be treated is the only remedy for any type of structural flaw. Any church/religion that promotes the idea that Jesus Saves is structurally flawed. Sin is a symptom of believing the wrong things about one’s self.
When Jesus says, “go and sin no more” he’s saying “believe in you and not what others say”. When he tells the paralytic that his sins are forgiven, he’s telling the man to stop believing what the Rabbis told him and believe that he is healed. In both instances he’s addressing the root causes of sin: believing what others say instead of just believing in one’s self, that each of us is born perfect the first time.
Leviticus 19:9–18 outlines the greatest command. No belief required, no church attendance, no structures required, not even a belief in God needed. Just keep your neighbor fed, clothed, sheltered, and loved. Any deviation from this remedy becomes a transaction. One cannot serve Love and Money, it’s always one or the other. You will know them by their fruits.
