(Matthew 5:44) But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, There are probably very few of us out there who have never heard of or seen the movie, The Karate Kid (Im talking about the 1984 original, not the remake that was done with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith). It was a blockbuster in its day and can still usually be seen several times a month on one channel or another. With all of the latest high-tech, high budget movies, The Karate Kid seems cheesy by todays standards. I loved it way back then and I still love it today (although I must admit that back then, I was more interested in the fight scenes than anything else), And I believe that this cheesy film still contains some valuable lessons for people who listen. At one point in the movie Daniel becomes frustrated with his situation. He’s tired of being bullied and tired of being treated like a loser...and he wants some payback. Mr. Miyagi listens patiently as Daniel vents his anger, then pulls him aside and tries to explain the essence of what he’s teaching. Miyagi points to his head and says, “Daniel-san, karate here.” Then he points to his heart and says “Karate here.” Finally, he points at his fists and say, “karate never here.” The point Im trying to make is simply this. A lot of Christians could take a lesson from Mr. Miyagi. It bothers me how often I hear pastors and Christian leaders say things like, This is a war were engaged in or “Its time to draw a spiritual line in the sand and I dare them to cross it” when referring to other human beings. Ephesians 6:12 clearly tells us, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. I understand how hard it is to live a Christian life in this sick, twisted modern culture. Believe me, I do. But that doesn’t mean we start living our faith with our fists. We arent going to beat anyone into salvation and we arent going to pound anyone into seeing or doing things the Christian way. In fact, thats a total contradiction to what Jesus told his disciples to do in Matthew 5 (see verse quoted above). The truth is, Jesus doesn’t need us to fight His battles! The victory has already been won! Our job is to be reflections of His love and mercy...PERIOD...and we can’t do that if we see non-Christians as our opponent! Brothers and sisters, the same principles Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel about karate are true for Christians....God is in our hearts, God is in our minds, but God is never in our fists!
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 06:46:03 +0000
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