Mixed Messages From A Cookie Box

by Element Christian Church
I had a strange thing happen at work the other day…

A co-worker of mine mentioned that her daughters, who attend a Christian school in town, were selling chocolate bars as part of a fundraiser. She brought up the possibility of bringing the box in, but was hesitant, since the box clearly displays the name of the school and its church affiliation. After another co-worker and I told her that wouldn’t be a problem, she mentioned that the box also has the phrase, “Saving the world from sinners.”

This was when I cringed.

This “short and sweet” phrase may seem harmless enough—just a tool for cute kids to use while spreading joy through delicious chocolate, but this is yet another example of poor theology rearing its ugly head. I couldn’t help but wonder what my non-Christian, spiritually ambiguous co-worker thought of that phrase—the world needs to be rescued from people like ME? Too often, this is the mentality of evangelical culture…it is us (the good guys, the “saved,” the churchgoers) vs. them (the bad guys, the sinners, the non-churchgoers). Maybe it’s just me, but this seems to strongly contradict Biblical passages like:
  • …For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… [Romans 3:23]
  • All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way… [Isaiah 53:6]
  • Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned [Romans 5:12]
Another thing that immediately stood out when I heard this phrase was the assumption that sinners (people) are the enemy. We know from Scripture that is not true: “ For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” [Ephesians 6:12]. Who are our enemies, then? Satan, sin, and death…and Jesus has victoriously conquered them all for us through his death and resurrection.

As fellow sinners, we should be going out into the world—loving ALL people (as Christ first loved us) and sharing the joy of our true enemies’ defeat. After all, what could be any sweeter than a message like that?

This blog is from the computer of Michelle Gee, one of our newer worship leaders.