Christians Should Look At People As Broken, Not Bad

Jude 1:17-23, “But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”

My favorite preacher is Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001). The vast majority of Dr. Hyles' critics are online. They are people who have never met Brother Hyles, didn't see and hear him in real life, didn't laugh from his witty sense of humor, and most of all feel his genuine love for people. I learned so many life-changing truths from Pastor Jack Hyles. He is my Christian hero!

Having said that, one of the most profound truths that I learned from Dr. Hyles was that as Christians we should always look at people as being BROKEN, rather than BAD. I love that! Pastor Hyles was so right! It is easy for us, in our sinful human nature, to view the human race as garbage. Let's face it, people do some really rotten and horrific things to each other! The truth is that we ALL have good and bad inside of us as humans. No one is perfect, literally!

In chapter 4 of his helpful book titled: “Teaching On Preaching,” Dr. Jack Hyles writes:

19. Think of good things to do for your enemies. Realize that people may not be all bad because they dislike you—Look upon them as being broken rather than being bad. I have a watch on my wrist. Sometimes the battery gets weak and it begins to lose time, or perhaps it will stop running altogether. I do not get mad at the watch; I realize that it is broken. I do what I can to fix it. When somebody does not like me, it may be that the battery is weak. I should not give him my hatred, vengeance, revenge or vindication. I should rather look upon him as being broken and not bad so that I may love and not hate him, do good to him and not ill! There is nothing that quite warms the heart like this, and once you have tasted the heavenly manna of forgiveness, you'll never again enjoy the bitter taste of revenge. [emphasis added]

SOURCE: 'Teaching On Preaching,' chapter 4, 'Keeping A Warm Heart As You Preach'

I love that!

I once heard a state trooper (who appeared in the 2009 TV series: “Alaskan State Troopers”), quote something brilliant that his father (who was also a state trooper in Alaska) taught him. He told his son: “Most people who get into trouble with the law are not bad people; rather, they are good people who are just at a bad point in their life.” I like that and couldn't agree more! In essence, that wise father was teaching his son to have compassion on people.

The best police officers balance the letter of the law with compassion. When we hear about abusive police brutality (which is sadly all too common), or a jerk cop with a John Wayne type of aggressive attitude and behavior, you know that such a person woefully lacks compassion. There is a need for compassion in society today, not just from cops toward the public, but also from the public toward the police. Sadly, just in June of 2022 in Chicago, three cops took their own life.

Ten years after the horrifying 9/11 attacks on New York City's famous World Trade Center (WTC), I watched a televised interview with dozens of paramedics, cops and firefighters, sharing their personal stories about struggling with post traumatic stress, broken marriages, health problems, et cetera. One policeman said something that I'll never forget. He said: “Cops make our living on the worst 10 minutes of people's lives.” I had never thought about that before, but he is right!

I don't condone, excuse or think police should get less severe punishments when they abuse, lie, terrorize and hurt people. Just because someone is a cop is not a justifiable extenuating circumstance. Pastors don't get such considerations! Cops should be held to the same intolerant standards of law and penalty as ordinary citizens. It bothers me that police are often given light sentences for severe crimes, versus the average American citizen who would go to prison for a very long time. That is injustice!

There is so much injustice in our country. The bisexual rock n' roll band, The Rolling Stones were busted by police in Arkansas, with a car full of cocaine. The cops let them go! But a drug-addicted Kansas City mother was sentenced by a judge in 1999 to life in prison, for possessing 1/16th an ounce of cocaine! Justice is very human! There is sadly very little mercy balanced with convictions in the American court system! As of the end of 2016, a shocking 7,346 youth under the age of 18 in the United States are serving life in prison sentences! This type of cruel and inhumane abuse is almost unheard of anywhere else in the world. The disturbing truth is that the American prison system is motivated by greed!

During the frightening 2020 “Black Lives Matter” rioting, I heard in the news about an admirable police chief in Missouri. He met with a mob of angry protesters to try to calm them down. I agree with what he suggested as part of the solution to police brutality nationwide. The police chief said that police departments nationwide need to start doing a much better job of filtering out bad apples during the hiring process. Just because a guy has the physique of Frankenstein is not enough to qualify him for the job of being a cop! The police chief wisely said that people should have a reputation for having COMPSSION before they get hired.

The Right Person for the Job

Police Chiefs Discuss the Most Important Commodity in Law Enforcement

The consensus from the chiefs was that they are looking for team players who are compassionate, ethical, and empathetic. They want someone who does the right thing when nobody is around; thinks independently, quickly, and “outside the box”; and demonstrates a solid work ethic and strong verbal and written communication skills. The problem is that people who self-select into law enforcement professions do not necessarily meet these standards.

SOURCE: The Right Person For The Job

I could write for days about the needful topic of compassion. We are witnessing nowadays a woeful lack of compassion, underlying the entire underbelly of American society. Why is this? What saith the Scripture? ...

2nd Timothy 3:1-7, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Wow! What a scary indictment against the human race by God Himself. Can anyone disagree that we are now living in such prophetic “perilous times”? I think not. When rapper Kanye West is break dancing at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, we know that the end must be near! When we see literally HUNDREDS of Bible versions flooding into the Bible colleges and churches, we know that the Devil is behind all this utter confusion.

Consider the unimaginable crimes that have been committed across the United States over the past 50 years. I could mention some heartbreaking horrors that I have heard and seen in the daily news, Forensic Files, Cold Case Files, et cetera. It is shocking the depths to which us humans can sink without Jesus Christ as our Savior, and if we fail to walk close with the Lord as a born-again child of God!!!

My purpose in writing this blog is to challenge you dear reader, from this moment forward to view people as broken rather than bad. Pastor Jack Hyles is correct, we wouldn't throw away a $10,000 Timex watch if it was broken, we would try to get it fixed. There's not a human being for whom Christ wouldn't have died on the cross. What saith the Scripture? ...

Romans 5:5-9, “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

I absolutely love that precious passage of Scripture? The Bible says that hardly would someone sacrifice their life to die for a righteous man. Some people might even die for a good man. But who in the world would give their life to die for a career criminal? Jesus, that's who! I have news for you dear friend, you and I are career criminals in God's holy sight. You may be the noblest and most morally upright person in your community, but in God's sight you and are are sinners.

I see so much lack of God's unconditional love in religious institutions and churches today. Sadly, everything has now come down to the evils of THE LOVE OF MONEY (1st Timothy 6:10-11). Humans are notorious for going into denial. Since it is a horrible sin to prioritize money over people, religious leaders know that they cannot succumb to such wickedness. So when it unfortunately happens (which is always the natural tendency anytime money gets involved), those leaders go into utter denial. Remember, anything can be justified! If you are willing to break the rules, discard or change THE TRUTH, and individual people aren't important to you anymore, then you are capable of committing the worst evils.

Pensacola Christian College (PCC) comes to mind, which is a terrible religious cult (founded in 1974 by Arlin and Rebekah Horton). I had always heard about the woeful lack of love and compassion for people at PCC, but I experienced it firsthand in the summer and fall of 2021 when I attended their Campus Church on the property of PCC. I did meet some nice and friendly people there, but all the time there was a very present fear and paranoia among PCC staff and inner circle church members. In the PCC camp, individual people don't matter. I am not kidding, I am being very honest. The cult system comes first at PCC. People are expendable! That is because PCC doesn't have genuine men of God leading the people. 

Pastor Jack Hyles eloquently put i this way:

“The pastors have destroyed the churches, and they've been trained by people that have never built churches, and they have no compassion.” —Pastor Jack Hyles, “Many Pastors Have Destroyed My Vineyard”

That statement so accurately describes Pensacola Christian College, then and now!!! PCC has a pattern of abuse over the decades. “Ichabod” (the glory of the Lord is departed) is written over the doors of Campus Church and PCC. God knows my heart, that I do not hate any living soul in this world.

I pray for Pastor Jeff Redlin often, that God will break his stiffnecked pride and humble him for the first time in his life. If God ever does, Pastor Redlin will contact me and grant my humble request to attend Campus Church again. They have banned me from attending PCC's Campus Church! Only a fake organization, that is not a genuine New Testament church, and an unholy and unloving pastor, would deny someone the God-given need to attend church. Yes, Jeff Redlin is broken, and I don't see him as bad. But he is in the same sinking boat as the self-righteous Pharisees of Jesus' generation, who woefully lacked God's love for others. John 5:42, “But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.”

Every human being can be categorized into one of two groups: Saved or Unsaved. You will either die IN YOUR SINS and burn in the fires of Hell forever (John 8:24); or you will die IN THE LORD and you'll walk the streets of gold in Heaven with the other saints, angels and Jesus our precious Savior and Lord (Revelation 14:13). Dear reader, do you KNOW beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are born-again, on your way to Heaven? I mean, if you died right now, do you know 100% that you are going to Heaven. I do! You can know too.

God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). God authored the Holy Bible. Today, this is the King James Bible in the English language. God has kept His solemn promise in Psalms 12:6-7 to preserve his very pure inspired Word. God has given us an accurate written record of the divine origin, virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, human burial, bodily resurrection and miraculous ascension back to Heaven, of His only begotten (biological) Son, Jesus.

First the Bad News! The inspired Word of God teaches that all humans are guilty sinners (Romans 3:10-23). There is a penalty for sin, which is physical death (Romans 6:23). This also includes a second death in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone (Revelation 14:11; 20:11-15; 21:8). No one can escape the physical death, but God has made a way of escape from the sting of death, which is to be punished in Hellfire forever and ever. Romans 5:8-9, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” What wrath? God's wrath!!! John 3:36, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” If you are not born-again, God's wrath abides (continually rests) upon your head (Psalms 7:11).

But there is Good News!!! The Bible teaches mankind that God will save anybody who places their childlike trust (reliance, faith, confidence) in the Good News (Gospel) of the Lord Jesus Christ (1st Corinthians 3:19-20). Acts 16:30-31, “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” The invitation to be saved is given to you and your whole family! All you need to do to be saved is stop trying to do something to get to Heaven:

Hebrews 4:10-11, “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

Jesus explained in John 6:28-29 what “labour” a sinner must do to get to Heaven:

John 6:28-29, “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”

The only “work” (labour) that God requires or allows to get to Heaven is to BELIEVE ON JESUS!!! That's it. You must accept Christ's sacrifice on the cross as payment for your sin. Simply trust God, taking Him at His Word as recorded in the Holy Bible, believing that Jesus was buried, but then resurrected from the dead three days later. He did that FOR YOU dear reader, because God loves you more than you could possible ever know (John 3:16).