“God
sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world
through Him.” (John 3:17)
I
read an exchange this morning between a friend who doesn’t believe in God and
her relative who says he does. Unfortunately, he indicated he would rather
stand up for the case of Christ than show love towards her.
That
is in total opposition of what Jesus taught.
An
oxymoron.
In
an effort to be passionate in what he believed, he offended many who read the
post. And, in fact, he hurt his relative by what he said. The fact is he hurt
me, too, by what he said.
I’ve
been sitting here for a couple of hours trying to articulate what I’m feeling,
but I keep coming up empty.
But
here’s what I do know.
I
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and was at the beginning of time.
After sin entered the world, and He knew it would happen before it did, Jesus
came into the world to live as we do, but he did not sin during his 33 years on
the earth. And while He was here, he hung out with those who weren’t perfect,
the ones who were sick and needed healing… the ones who needed a touch from the
only one who could take away the pain.
The
only people Jesus really got angry with were the Pharisees and hypocrites.
He
didn’t get angry with those who were sinning… or hurting… or dying. It was for
those very people he came for.
In
Luke 5, Jesus was teaching, and the crowd was great. A paralyzed man was
carried by his friends to see Jesus, so the man could be healed. When they
couldn’t get to him through the crowd, they took their friend up to the roof
and actually took off some tiles to lower their friend through. Can you imagine
the person whose building that was? I’m sure he was upset! But this man is
lowered down from the ceiling on a mat and lands right in front of Jesus. And
Jesus says, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.” He forgave his sins because of
the faith of his friends. (Luke 5:18-20)
What
about the woman at the well? The Samaritan woman. Jesus knew her life’s story,
yet he didn’t accuse. He simply stated the truth. He, Jesus, the Light of the
World, didn’t tell her how she was a dirty, rotten sinner. He offered her
acceptance, truth and love. (John 4)
And
what about the woman caught in adultery? She was going to be stoned! And Jesus
Christ, son of God, stooped down and wrote something in the sand. I wish I knew
what it was! Anyway, he told the crowd that whoever is without sin should cast
the first stone. The crowd, realizing they were also guilty of something,
dropped their rocks and left. When everyone was gone, Jesus asked the woman
where her accusers were and if any of them condemned her. When she said no, He
said this… “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” John 8
This
is the Jesus of the Bible. This is the Jesus I’ve come to know. For even though
He could have told her lots of things, accused her of the sin she was obviously
committing, stoned her Himself, because he wasn’t guilty of anything, He did
not.
For
you see, without love, truth is not appreciated or even recognized.
You
can bang your head against the wall of truth, but if you don’t have love,
nothing is gained.
“If I could speak all the languages of earth
and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a
clanging cymbal.
If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of
God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I
could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body,
I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained
nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous
or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its
own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth
wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is
always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge
will become useless. But love will last forever! Now
our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals
only part of the whole picture! But when the time of
perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But
when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see
things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see
everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete,
but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me
completely.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope,
and love—and the greatest of these is love.”
(1 Corinthians 13)
Yes, we want the world to know Jesus the way
we do, but I wonder if some people who call themselves Christians actually know
the same Jesus I do. The Jesus I know would never push Himself on others. The
Jesus I know told me (and you) to love God and love people. He said, “The
entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two
commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Loving people doesn’t mean accepting their
sin. Loving people means we accept THEM, as people. We are called to this by
the very One we claim to represent. We aren’t going to show Jesus to people if
we harass and accuse them. We have to love them, get to know them, and live our
lives as close to our example as possible.
And if we aren’t doing that, we are failing.
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