Yesterday,someone put up a status about someone who came into the church and neglected her best friend.She cut all ties and did not even share the light she found with her.She started wondering if she had done something wrong and wanted to know if they are still best friends.There has also been reports of people encountering cold missionaries.This has really saddened me because I'm well acquinted with cold formalism.I'm a recovering cold formalist (if there's such a thing).
This year,God has been teaching me what true love is about in the social context.It's easy to love those who love you and who have the same interests and views as you.And that's me,I'm so drawn to those who share similar thoughts with me.But what does it help,to love those who love us?God calls us to love everyone,regardless of whether they are of the same faith,race,class,religion as us.We're counselled to love everyone as we love ourselves.
Let me use social pyschology to explain why we sometimes show cold formalism within God's house:
In social physchology,there's a concept called social categorization.One group-the ingroup views itself better than the outgroup-those who do not belong to their group.The ingroup always attribute positive traits to them,while they see defects in the outgroup.
In order for the ingroup to change its views,contact hypothesis is applied.This means both group are brought into contact with each other and they get to see similarities and this reduces the ingroup's stereotype about the other group.
There are also other ways to solve social categorization-like mixing these groups and forming new groups and have them work on a certain goal.
The sad thing is,this concept of social categorization is also in christendom,but in reality it's selfishness and cold formalism.I know it too well,since I suffered from it and God is helping me still.It's often more common amongst those who are reforming.Unbeknown to them sometimes,they start excluding those they 'deem' below their standard( instead of God's) and they choose to associate with those who follow the same reforms while excluding others.This may be done because they feel comfortable with their group since there are similarities and common ground.But in reality this is satan's studied plan.
God would have us show love even to those who are not yet where we are spiritually and we are to always remember where God took us from.And when we associate with these individuals,we get a chance to learn from each other.In the rightful context,judging is when we deem others less,and exclude them since they are not where WE think they should be-forgetting that we cannot see the heart.Here,we err.How will those who've got little knowledge learn?But besides learning,they need love.
"The greatest argument of the gospel is a lovable and loving Christian"(paraphrased)-MH
I'm really challenged and i realize,the more you reform or learn more about God's will-the more you need Him because you can either draw others to Him or away from Him.
"Every association of life calls for the exercise of self-control, forbearance, and sympathy. We differ so widely in disposition, habits, education, that our ways of looking at things vary. We judge differently. Our understanding of truth, our ideas in regard to the conduct of life, are not in all respects the same. There are no two whose experience is alike in every particular. The trials of one are not the trials of another. The duties that one finds light are to another most difficult and perplexing.
So frail, so ignorant, so liable to misconception is human nature, that each should be careful in the estimate he places upon another. We little know the bearing of our acts upon the experience of others. What we do or say may seem to us of little moment, when, could our eyes be opened, we should see that upon it depended the most important results for good or for evil."-MH,483
"It is through the social relations that Christianity comes in contact with the world. Every man or woman who has received the divine illumination is to shed light on the dark pathway of those who are unacquainted with the better way. Social power, sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, must be improved in bringing souls to the Saviour. Christ is not to be hid away in the heart as a coveted treasure, sacred and sweet, to be enjoyed solely by the possessor. We are to have Christ in us as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life, refreshing all who come in contact with us."-MH,496
This year,God has been teaching me what true love is about in the social context.It's easy to love those who love you and who have the same interests and views as you.And that's me,I'm so drawn to those who share similar thoughts with me.But what does it help,to love those who love us?God calls us to love everyone,regardless of whether they are of the same faith,race,class,religion as us.We're counselled to love everyone as we love ourselves.
Let me use social pyschology to explain why we sometimes show cold formalism within God's house:
In social physchology,there's a concept called social categorization.One group-the ingroup views itself better than the outgroup-those who do not belong to their group.The ingroup always attribute positive traits to them,while they see defects in the outgroup.
In order for the ingroup to change its views,contact hypothesis is applied.This means both group are brought into contact with each other and they get to see similarities and this reduces the ingroup's stereotype about the other group.
There are also other ways to solve social categorization-like mixing these groups and forming new groups and have them work on a certain goal.
The sad thing is,this concept of social categorization is also in christendom,but in reality it's selfishness and cold formalism.I know it too well,since I suffered from it and God is helping me still.It's often more common amongst those who are reforming.Unbeknown to them sometimes,they start excluding those they 'deem' below their standard( instead of God's) and they choose to associate with those who follow the same reforms while excluding others.This may be done because they feel comfortable with their group since there are similarities and common ground.But in reality this is satan's studied plan.
God would have us show love even to those who are not yet where we are spiritually and we are to always remember where God took us from.And when we associate with these individuals,we get a chance to learn from each other.In the rightful context,judging is when we deem others less,and exclude them since they are not where WE think they should be-forgetting that we cannot see the heart.Here,we err.How will those who've got little knowledge learn?But besides learning,they need love.
"The greatest argument of the gospel is a lovable and loving Christian"(paraphrased)-MH
I'm really challenged and i realize,the more you reform or learn more about God's will-the more you need Him because you can either draw others to Him or away from Him.
"Every association of life calls for the exercise of self-control, forbearance, and sympathy. We differ so widely in disposition, habits, education, that our ways of looking at things vary. We judge differently. Our understanding of truth, our ideas in regard to the conduct of life, are not in all respects the same. There are no two whose experience is alike in every particular. The trials of one are not the trials of another. The duties that one finds light are to another most difficult and perplexing.
So frail, so ignorant, so liable to misconception is human nature, that each should be careful in the estimate he places upon another. We little know the bearing of our acts upon the experience of others. What we do or say may seem to us of little moment, when, could our eyes be opened, we should see that upon it depended the most important results for good or for evil."-MH,483
"It is through the social relations that Christianity comes in contact with the world. Every man or woman who has received the divine illumination is to shed light on the dark pathway of those who are unacquainted with the better way. Social power, sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, must be improved in bringing souls to the Saviour. Christ is not to be hid away in the heart as a coveted treasure, sacred and sweet, to be enjoyed solely by the possessor. We are to have Christ in us as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life, refreshing all who come in contact with us."-MH,496
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