Look, I totally get that we cannot, and must not, even by inference, give others permission to live sinfully. Yes, there are people in our society who live what we might call depraved lives. But please !! Itās time for the Lone Ranger and Tonto to climb down off their horses and walk amongst the ordinary people living in this world and start living a life of love – instead of judgment. Some of our finest warriors will be people who have been snatched away from the fires of hell!
Meanwhile what do WE have that was not GIVEN to us? āFor who regards you as superior or what sets you apart as special? What do you have that you did not receive [from another]? And if in fact you received it [from God or someone else], why do you boast as if you had not received it [but had gained it by yourself]?ā 1 Corinthians 4:7.
Where do we āget offā looking down our noses at other people – people who may never even have heard of the Saviour – and start judging their lives. We are not here to be permissive but we arenāt here to be judgmental either. Is this really how we think we should introduce people to the One Who loved them before this world began? Like thatās gunna work! Condemnation just drives people further into excuses, and defensiveness. If we want to see people set free, then we need to stay in Love with the Saviour and live a life of sacrificial love toward everyone around us.
āOh, but they will go to hell if they donāt repent and change their ways.ā RIGHT. So our plan is to use FEAR to push them into Godās ways? Fear always leads to faith doesn’t it? NOT!! Hmmm. Arenāt we confusing FEAR with CONVICTION? Have we utterly forgotten who WE were before Jesus saved us? Speaking for myself I was a huge bag of superiority – āI would never do stuff like that!ā says I as I looked down my nose at others. Meanwhile even though I didnāt blatantly lie, but I exaggerated heaps – and of course, that meant I was always the hero of any little story or anecdote I told.
I was guilty of lust, plus a complete lack of honesty. I couldnāt stand my sole parent and the way I was raised, and I said so to anyone who was dumb enough to ask me about it. I hated some people with a passion ā usually people who had the effrontery to not like me! In short I was as ugly inside as most people are, but I had become quite adept at hiding it so I would be accepted. But it is hard to hide yourself from yourself, you gotta be dedicated to do that stuff! That kind of self-deception has to be practised.
You know sometimes I think we have not matured enough to understand that sin is not contagious, it is a choice. I will concede that bad circumstances can, and will often appear to line up against us, and temptation often pops up when we are at our weakest. BUT… people make bad choices for many many reasons.
Some things are not actual life-style choices, instead people are driven to these dark places because they cannot cope with how they feel, and our common enemy takes advantage of their needs and weaknesses. When we are starved of love and natural human affection we are easily swayed onto darker pathways. Desperate, lonely people do daft things to fit in. And ā¦ sometimes these things are also the cumulative result of cultivating rotten attitudes and activities.
Following Jesus means we leave that proud judgmental lifestyle behind us. We call our SIN – SIN. Not whoopsies. We donāt blame our parents for our unloving ways, because we have and regularly read HIS BOOK and understand that our parents probably did the best they could based what this life shoved at them! We look at the next guy and think: āthat could have been me, God have mercy on us both!ā
Jesus touched the unclean. He interacted with two thieves – Judas and Zacchaeus – one repented and turned his life around and the other didnāt. He even dealt kindly with promiscuous women, and spoke into their hearts instead of condemning them. The only language weāve been licensed to speak now, is LOVE. Christians fall down when we use the bible as a club to punish, damage, judge and banish people – when in truth the bible is that glorious balm in Gilead that will save the sin-sick, wounded soul.
We need to remember where we were when He found us and called us. We have been GIVEN the greater portion, so letās use that for everyoneās good and find His better ways to reach out to the lost – ācos they aināt called that for nothing! š
