A Name Misused

  Wars often lead to lawlessness and the American Revolution was no different.  So as the conflict spread south in Virginia, Charles was dismayed at the effect it had on his home in Bedford County. The courts had ceased to function. Guerrilla bands and militias on both sides roamed the countryside, and hooligans often ruled the streets. So Charles decided to take matters into his own hands.

   So he set up his own unofficial court. He appointed officers and issued arrests of lawbreakers. Since they had no money to jail prisoners, he doled out punishments in fines or whippings.  Charles tried to judge with compassion and reason, but still, his actions created a great deal of animosity towards him.

  Charles only had to enlist the death penalty once in his court. A plot by some Tories to destroy a lead mine vital to the war effort was discovered. The conspirators were found guilty and hanged. The friends and family of the men were upset claiming that Charles was unfair in his judgment since he owned a stake in the mines. After the war, they began to besmirch his name. They associated it not with the justice Charles was trying to uphold but an act of vengeance done without justice.

 We still do today. Charles's last name was Lynch.

but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.

1st Peter 4:16

 The name Christian today has come to be used in various and in sometimes unbecoming ways. Christians, for some, mean judgmental, narrow-minded, hateful, stupid, or backward. Christians are mocked and ridiculed. Yet that shouldn’t surprise us. It has been happening from the start.

 However just because someone thinks that is the definition doesn’t mean it is. We must bear up not to what they call us but whom we were called to follow.  Jesus himself was reviled and suffered yet did not return volley, nor should we.  How we take the abuse says more about our true character than they ever will be able to.

 Christian may be a named misused, but it should never be done by one.