Verse: 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any one be in Christ, that one is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Killers in the Church
I can see the heads swirling around now checking the corners and the hallways. No, there is no mad monster with a power saw and a Halloween mask stalking the halls leaving beheaded corpses in his wake. These killers can walk the halls of church killing with words, with condemnation, with hate, greed, malice, and selfishness.
Yes, a killer walks but not that horror film stereotype kind. This killer can be just as deadly.
The killer portrayed in the movies if often based ons that personality type that professionals call the psychopath or sociopath. Some sources indicate as many as 1 in every 25 people is a psychopath and others say that it is 1 in every 5. .
Simply put, these are people who lack certain elements of their makeup associated with the best of human nature. They lack sympathy, and empathy, they are manipulative, they lie, they are self-centered, and their own needs come first. They tend to excel in certain fields where those qualities are valued. Not all psychopaths or sociopaths become killers but those qualities when abuse, neglect and other factors enter to shape a life can become just that.
Those qualities, however, are opposite to what a Christian is to be. When we have envy, strife, unkindness and other conflicts in the church we act contrary to what a Christian means. When we root ourselves into positions that demand we have our way and not give or compromise on nonessential issues we are not being Christlike. We are functioning from our corrupt and flawed human nature. The nature has to change but how? How does human nature change to become something totally different, better, kinder, purer, and more loving?The Gospel speaks of being born anew, the book of Romans stresses the need for transformation by allowing Christ to consume the human nature changing it into His own, and Corinthians and the Letters of John warn of what happens when this does not happen.
What happens is there are killers in the church. There are people who are hard at work slaying the souls, the hope, and the dreams of those in the community of faith. They stalk like a hungry lion, leaping out when least expected and shredding human hearts.
They are often invisible, the classic mild next door neighbor who never caused any trouble, until they are captured and charged with a string of horrific murders.
The weapon for such stalking killers in the church is prayer and an ever deepening spiritual relationship with the God who saves, makes new ,
and brings love.
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