My Message to Anyone Who’s Been Wounded by 'God’s People'

You wouldn't know this from listening to a lot of Christians …

If you want to know the mind of God, all you have to do is listen to what his Son says. Read the four Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You’ll find God in flesh telling all of us what God thinks.

Of course, there are people in 2022 who can quote the Bible and make God out to be something he isn’t. But this is nothing new. They did it in Jesus’ day too. They were called Pharisees and teachers of the law. Professional clergymen. They twisted Scripture to make it appear that God was on their side, that he had appointed them to speak for him.

They tried this sick trick on Jesus more than a time or two. However, since he was God in flesh, he knew a thing or two about the Bible that the clergy didn’t know. You won’t find him calling out the “sinners” too often — the drunks, prostitutes, and tax collectors. He did call them to leave their lives of sin and follow him, but he was never harsh with them. His harshest words were reserved for those who claimed they know God — for those who used the Bible to lord it over others. He never hesitated to call them out.

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

—John 5:39-40

In their arrogance, they missed the mark. They knew the Bible inside and out, but they missed Jesus, and according to him, the entire Bible was about him. From Genesis to Malachi, it was all pointing in one direction and to one person — Jesus Christ, the son of God who would take on human flesh, die for the people who rebelled against him, and be raised from the dead. All so that we could know God, to have access to him. He did what he did so that we could approach the throne of God with confidence rather than cowering in fear every time the thought of God crossed our sinful minds.

There’s a word for a God like that and that word is merciful! He is a merciful God. Quick to forgive! Longing to forgive! It’s what he does; it’s his nature. And for those of us who believe in him, he gives us his spirit as a defense against Satan’s accusations. When he tries to remind us of our guilt, God’s spirit rises up, points at us, and says, “Not him! Not her! She’s one of mine. She’s as clean from sin as she can be. I bought her back from your control.”

That’s who God is!

So, what does it say about people who claim to follow him yet refuse to imitate his merciful nature? People who claim to be Christ-followers but dangle the sins of others over their heads as a reminder that they’re guilty? It’s inconsistent, right? For example, you wouldn’t expect to find a woman who has been forgiven of adultery grabbing another sister by the throat and condemning her for her gossip, would you?

This is, however, what you often find among churchgoing people. Unforgiving! Unmerciful! Dispensing law instead of grace. Passing out condemnation like it was candy! Unfortunately, it pains those who are judged. It hurts those who would like to know God but don’t know how. And it hurts the cause of Christ because it looks like those people are his representatives on Earth. Sadly, there’s plenty of that going around religious circles.

Perhaps this is why Jesus said what he said in Matthew chapter 12 when a group of preachers accosted his disciples for what they considered to be an infraction of their law. What he said to them should have caused them to take a time-out and reflect on their spirit of judgment.

If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

—Matthew 12:7

To their own shame, the Pharisees doubled down on judgment instead. And even after Jesus performed an undeniable miracle in their presence to prove his divinity, they persisted in their condemnation. The last thing Matthew recorded about this encounter is all you need to know about judgmental unmerciful people:

 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

—Matthew 12:14

The last thing condemning people want to hear is a voice condemning their behavior. Ironic, isn’t it?

You wouldn’t know it from listening to a lot of Christians, but God delights in dispensing mercy. It pleasures him to take the burden of condemnation off our backs. When he displays his mercy, it is the one behavior that flows directly out of his pure nature — God is love. This is good news for us, to find out that instead of a god who delights in condemnation, our God is overjoyed when people come to him in humble repentance with our empty hands held out before us.

Yes! He is a merciful God.

And to anyone who has been wounded by “God’s people,” I want to say this: It wasn’t God who did that to you. If you’ve been controlled, lied to, manipulated, abused, or molested by people who claim to have God’s blessing, you need to know that they are liars, and that God is more disgusted by their actions than even you are.

I encourage everyone to run into the presence of the God who loves you and is delighted to wash you in the mercy he provides through the shed blood of his Son. Don’t put it off and don’t blame your reluctance to go to him on the pretenders who claim to be his agents here on earth. They are impostors, but the Son of God is not. He is the real deal — someone you can trust with your life.

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