Spiritual Enlightenment.
Before I came back to Christ I felt Christians didn’t seem any more spiritually enlightened than buddhists, hindus, etc. On a scale of who was more friendly I felt Asians in general were more friendly or accepting than even the American Christians I knew.
Church is not a house of saints but more a hospital for the sick. Accepting the Holy Spirit into our spirit means a rebirth of our whole self (heart, mind, body, soul). The fruit of the Holy Spirit isn’t spiritual enlightenment. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22,23). This is the sign of a victorious and mature Christian. Dr. Charles Solomon estimates that only five percent of Christians are living this victorious life so that means the rest are culture Christians. I don’t know if that estimate is true or not.
Back to the point on being accepting. God is inclusive of everyone with no exceptions. The Bible, especially Jesus, teaches how we are to love others. We don’t have to agree with or condemn one another. For example, according to God’s Word homosexuality is a sin. We all struggle with different kinds of sin. The point is that we love the person and hate the sin. C.S. Lewis said this is easy to do because we do it with ourselves everyday. It’s not for me to convince you that something is a sin that’s the work of the Holy Spirit and reading His Word. The Holy Spirit may even speak to you through my words. When God’s truth is spoken (and in a loving way) our spirit senses it. Christians are to be the salt of the world and salt makes people thirsty for the Lord.
