Oh, how He loves us.
1 John 4:19 WE LOVE BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US.
and maybe you know John 3:16? Can you declare it outloud with passion...
FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD....... (declare it out loud as a prayer,
God! You so loved...)
What a generous lover we have.
and so I found myself encouraging the saints on facebook to love one another. One precious strong Christian had posted John 3:16 and also a blog post from another Christian who was commented on the negative Christians who posted about the superbowl and halftime. She viewed them as misguided souls. She was declaring that we should not judge-- within her post about judging. And so this seemed a perfect opportunity to discuss this within the body of Christ.
First!
I, TOO, AM JUDGING!
and I am not pretending that I am not a hypocrite. Sad truth is that at times I am judgmental about those judging. And I can have critical judgment on near about anything. However, I want us to go beyond our judging and our fear of judging.
Second, judging in the sense of deciding about something is an absolute necessity in life although on some matters, you can just choose not to decide about it as ONE of those options in your deciding.
:-)
For example, when you cross the street, you have to decide if it is safe. You aren't being judgmental when you decide it is NOT GOOD to cross right now while the cars are whizzing past you. Likewise, you can decide it is NOT GOOD to watch the Superbowl, then suddenly WHOOPS! Someone says you are "jugdmental." Oh, come on.
So let me share with you another higher way.
Recognize that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers. What this means is that God says we really do not have the argument with people, but with demons and evil forces in the world trying to propel ungodly thoughts, ideas, and actions into our lives and against each other.
Recognize that our culture has developed a new way of attacking Christians. I would say that the spirit of the antiChrist in the world, or ....all that goes against exalting Jesus in media, conversations, ideas, books, blogs, lewd cartoons and photographs, etc......have developed a new way to shut us down.
THE TOLERANCE GAME.
This tolerance is not the avoidance of judgment presented in Romans 2. In Romans 2, we acknowlege that when we look at someone and call them bad, these are the SAME THINGS IN OUR HEARTS and we sin when we cannot acknowlege that. In fact, if these sins are not yet developed in your life, you will find them coming out so that you learn and know what it is like to be that person you judged. This would be a good reason to avoid judging murderers and other horrific criminals because we never want to come to a full "understanding" of what led them to such behavior. Let us forgive them, agreeing that the sin was horrible, but the person was created by God and we forgive them of their wrongdoing. We can forgive because from the day we cried as a newborn, we were exhibiting our will and attempting a demand for comfort. (No condemnation on precious babies!) We wanted to rule our world from the beginning and we have sinned against God in this and many other overt wrongs, yet He has forgiven us through the perfect blood of Jesus Christ who died in our place. Therefore, we forgive others even if they have abused us mightily because no one can sin against us in this life nearing the quanity and quality of our offense against the rightful Lord of the Universe and our lives. This forgiveness and lack of judgment is not tolerance.
Tolerance is the new way to shut down a Christian. By their own fear of man, today's Christian feels they are not allowed to be viewed as intolerant. In history past, this was never the argument against the evangelist. Now it is the label to be avoided at all costs. No one wants to be labeled religious and mean. Rather than loving others and telling them that Jesus offers forgiveness for sins, Christians are straitjacketed into paralysis.
Instead, I encourage us all to look at Jesus anew. LOOK AT OUR LOVING LORD JESUS! We must take our eyes off those who accuse us. Get ourselves filled up with the forgiveness Jesus gave us and worship Him for His power over sin. Let the love He has for us so fill us up that we can afford to be attacked, criticized and condemned. When we love others and share Jesus and get that "intolerant" label, just LOVE. Keep loving. Keep loving. Yes, it will get hard because you are not perfected, but die to your own defensiveness and self-protection and allow Jesus to fill you up and pour out love extended to that critic. God bless them! We are completely safe in the love of Jesus. We don't have to prove it or attack back.
Another way of stating it is that we are to walk the talk--not talk it. But the Word says that people need to hear the message. So ignore that. You ARE walking the walk and you will still get that attack. Every person alive probably has SOME area worthy of a little accusation, so shrug that off. We claim that Jesus is perfect and loving and good. We claim to be forgiven and to have His life in us giving us love for others. So, show that love of Jesus RIGHT THERE. When you are accused of your weaknesses. You can afford it! You are clean through Jesus. You do not need to defend anything.
(For example, if someone were to say something to me like....well, you have never had children. I would hardly take that accusation bitterly because I have had children and it is just a fact. So a false accusation doesn't land on me. It sounds silly and wrong. If someone says I am stupid or fat or mean or ridiculous, so what if that is true? I am loved by God and I can handle someone attacking me about things meant to make me feel small and insignificant. Because God loves and accepts me, I can just shrug off those attacks --of course, I am going to struggle!--- and if someone says I am a religious bigot, they are just wrong. I am not. And I am trying to love them. and I will try to love them RIGHT THEN and RIGHT THERE. Even if they are vicious liars and opposing me. Obviously, this is a growth area for many of us and we can get there because of the perfection of Jesus and if you actually ACT like a religious bigot, there is forgiveness and you can keep growing! Nothing has to set you back in your growth to become like Jesus! Because He who promises is faithful!)
Okay, Christians, if you are so loving, why aren't you LOVING the one that criticizes? So you are going to keep your mouth shut about sin in "sinners" because you are so loving, but you are on the prowl for those who are "bashing." So sad. The unbelievers look to see if we are even good at loving each other---oops.
Try again. Try to grow in Christ-likeness. Try to love non-Christians and Christians. Try to love BAD Christians! Not by tolerating but by sharing forgiveness. We CAN preach repentance. Jesus did.
We CAN love sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, and Pharisees! We can love Judas. Can you imagine Jesus loving Judas for three years. So can you! Because Christ lives in you.
My hope is that we will not bash each other, or anyone. But that we would be able to fearlessly oppose accusations that we are prideful or intolerant because we proclaim Jesus is the only way to God. HE IS.
We are not prideful when we say Jesus is Lord. If you just cannot grow past your fear of man, take baby steps by proclaiming Jesus at all times. You do not have to speak AGAINST anyone or anything, but always proclaim Jesus in the positive! Preach to Muslims, Jesus is the way. You are not commenting on anything they think or believe, you are only proclaiming Jesus in the positive. Proclaim to Jews, Jesus is the way. Proclaim to the homosexual community, Jesus is the way. Proclaim to Christians, Jesus is the way. Proclaim in the media. Jesus is the way to God.
But remember to love the ones who are negative and critical. You aren't doing anyone any favors by pointing out the weaknesses of the critical people. Remember to love them. Forgive them.
Remember the reason YOU LOVE is that God first loved you. You were created in His image and so were His other created human beings. All are worthy of dignity based on God's worthiness. It is not condoning sin to treat others with dignity. Remember to recognize that your own sinfulness before God beats anyones sin against you. Let that inspire humility.
Remember that everyone on the planet capable of thinking clearly can see the sin of others. Only those with the love of Christ within can cover it with the love of God. Love covers a multitude of sins. WE HAVE THAT LOVE INSIDE US. We won't judge someone by one sin (like homosexuality) but recognize that WE have a huge range of sins that are forgiven so we can forgive a huge range of sins--they do not have to be our particular bad ones (materialism, gluttony, lust of the eyes, pride of life.) We extend grace because we have grace and we know how good it feels.
All of my friends are sinners and all of my enemies are sinners. I bless them all (on my good days.) I recognize what a sinner I am and so I do not take pleasure in identifying someone else's sin and feeling better than they are (actually, that is not true, because I do find myself in wrongful pride thinking I am better than someone else because maybe .... I like green drinks and they only drink cola. But I drink cola, too! ha!)
So I hope I have displayed enough of my own sinfulness to show this is not a diatribe (what does that word mean, anyway?) against YOU, friend. This is a call to US to love one another. Love God first then love one another. Let that great love pour out to those who haven't yet tasted the Lord. And let's make that taste a good one, but if it offends, let them be offended. Let them accuse. We have a wealth of love and acceptance and we can let that slide off our backs and cover it with love. We can stand there filled with God's love for us and extend it with our expression, our stance, and our words (if you are quick enough to be that good with words! Don't we all wish we had thought of something great to say in the moment!) Love Love Love.
God's Kingdom is at hand. Oh, how He loves us.
