August 21

Fair-Weather Christians

He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45).

Scripture: Matthew 5:43-48

Song: “Higher Ground”

In 2005 I watched on TV as Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans. Some well-meaning Christian friends looked at each other and nodded. They figured: God has decided to punish the wicked city. A little over a month later, however, these same friends and I packed our cars and headed north as Hurricane Rita ripped along our own Texas-Louisiana border. Now the (apparently) just and the (supposedly) unjust worlds were both turned upside down.

The Sermon on the Mount calls us to a higher standard of judgment than what’s normally expected. God can and will judge peoples and nations, of course. But that work is far beyond our pay grade! We may be tempted to cloak ourselves in righteousness, announcing God’s judgment based on our whims. But traveling that path leads to danger. Instead, Christ calls us to a standard in which we’re not only to love our enemies, but to pray for them too.

Tempted to hurl God’s lightning bolts toward the evil as you bask in the sunlight? Don’t do it! The Creator has set physical processes and systems into place in our world, and unless He specifically and miraculously intervenes, they will play out amidst the good and bad alike. So let the weatherman give the weather reports; we as Christians have other important things to do.

I pray, Lord, that You help me strive to live by Your standards and not merely by what the world expects. Infuse my spirit with Your spirit of love toward all. In Christ, amen.