Jon spoke today on the sanctity of life as we continue looking at the 5 Marks of the Early Church. Our text was 1 Cor 13: 1-3 which is considered the "Love chapter" of the bible. Nothing matters if you don't love.
Sanctity of Life is a tough topic that many churches do not address. Jon was open and honest about his fears of traumatizing, hurting or alienating people today. Redeemer began discussing this when Roe was overturned. Morgan and Jon invited the women of Redeemer to discuss so they could just listen.
Jon started with an important history lesson. If we go back and look at the Roman Empire, it was common for babies to be discarded. Infant exposure was not only common but accepted. (Just leaving a baby somewhere because you didn't want it.)This was an easy way for the Romans to gather new slaves by collecting these discarded babies.
If we look at Luke 10: 25-37, Jesus expands on the question "Who is your neighbor?" When we see someone in pain or someone in need, we are to act. Christians in the early church did this. They adopted many of these abandoned babies. Christians outlawed "infant exposure." This increased the number of Christians and created equal numbers of males and females since girls were discarded much more often than boys. In early Christianity, women began to see that they were valued. It has always been in the history of Christianity to fight for women and babies.
There is no specific scripture in the bible discussing abortion. The Christian Church believes the fetus has value. Where did this come from? Another history lesson....there were laws that if you hit a pregnant woman and harm was done to the baby, there was a fine. If the baby did not survive, it was a "life for a life." Exodus 21: 22-25
It's important to note that the life of the mother has always been in included in the church's stance. The life of the mother was always protected. Jews and Christians alike do not accept abortion except to save or protect the life of the mother.
Psalms 139: 13-14.
Let's talk about today. In our world today, abortion is politicized. As a church, we cannot be a shaming place. We can't push truth over love. We can't protect babies and not love the mother. We can't protect babies and not take care of the poor. We cannot allow this to be used as a political tool.
There is a lot of trauma and hurt surrounding this topic. We need to be a place of healing, love and support.
Romans 12 was a good place to close. I encourage everyone to read that chapter this week as you digest this heavy topic.
As a church, we will follow Jesus and Jesus commanded us to love.
