Blizzard Charl-emo (that's "Charlotte" and "Nemo" put together since depending on where you live it goes by either name) hit us here in New England last night, so I spent a lot of the night watching movies and reading. As a family, we watched the movie "No Greater Love", which I had been really excited about seeing, but it left me feeling......a little annoyed...after watching it.
Basically the movie is about this married couple who are separated because the wife leaves after the birth of their first child and then ten years later she mysteriously reappears and in the end, they end up back together as one happy family! Sounds like a great story doesn't it. Yet....there's this one part in the movie that just really.....rubbed me the wrong way.
You see, the husband is a non-believer and his wife has become a christian while they are separated. When it's discovered that they are in fact still married (the husband never signed the divorce papers) the church tells the wife she must submit to her husband and stay married to him even though after all this time she doesn't even really know this man!
Now I am NOT saying that the church is lying or saying something completely contrary to the Bible. They quote enough scriptures in the movie to prove what they are saying is biblical. But what really bothered me is that the way it was portrayed (or at least how I viewed it from the movie) that the church was telling this woman what to do instead of just speaking the truth to her and allowing her to decide for herself the best course of action!
By all means, I think The Church has every right to speak the truth of God's word into people's lives when they ask to hear it. In fact I think it is the Church's responsibility to do just that! However, telling some one what to do and doing it in such a way as to tell them to obey because it's a biblical law...just doesn't sit right with me!
Yes I think we should obey the word of God. Yes I think the Church needs to speak that law. However our obedience to that law should be a choice we make out of our Love for God and our desire to honor Him....Not because some pastor forced us to read some passages in the Bible and then informed us "it's clear what we need to do"!
I know it's only a movie....I shouldn't get so annoyed over a work of fiction....but...I guess...it bothers me so much because this type of scenario is played out so much in churches across America. Now I know that is not really a fair statement for me to make! I've only attended 5 different churches in my life time, so I can't really make such a blanketed statement about all churches......but even in those 5 churches, I've seen stuff like this....where people are told what to do, and act out of holding up some religious law, rather than making decisions for themselves out of what they know from having a relationship with God.
If faith is suppose to be about a relationship with God and Love and Grace and Honor and service to Him....then shouldn't obedience be about that and not because of some church telling a person what the bible says?!
I could be wrong about this....but I'd rather have a relationship with God that is walked out in obedience to Him because of My love for Him, than some legalistic set of rules!
Just Saying....End of Rant!
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