“He who does
not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
The Bible
was never intended to be a book written to point out all the things that we as
people do wrong. Nor was it written to
condemn us, shame us, or make us feel guilty about the sin in our lives. The Bible was written so that we might know,
understand, and recognize the love of our Heavenly Father who chose to create
us, and love us, and decided to die for us before the world was even
formed. Before you and I were even born,
He had already decided that He wanted to accept us, love us, and offer us His
mercy and grace.
At one point
during Jesus earthly ministry, some lawyers were trying to trick Him so they
could accuse Him of blasphemy. They
asked Him which commandment of the law was the greatest. There are 613 commandments written out in the
Old Testament. Most of us think there’s
just Ten Commandments. There are
actually 613 commandments in total.
That’s a lot of rules and regulations to try and live by! It’s impossible for anyone to be able to
remember and keep all those laws!
Jesus
answered their question by saying:
“The first
of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength:
this is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this, You shall love
your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
(Mark 12:29-31)
And, in the
book of Matthew, Jesus said, on these two commandments, “hang all the law and
the prophets”. What He meant was that
everything taught in the Bible is completely summed up by these two
commandments… love God and love people.
Not everyone
is going to share your beliefs on every topic.
Our world is full of violence and rejection and hurt that is caused
because people do not agree. Others
around you will have lifestyles and behaviors that you do not believe to be
“right” or good or even Christian-like. But, you and I must act in love regardless
of how we feel.
Jesus did
not condone sin. But, He also did not
condemn the sinner. He said that He came
so that sinners might be saved. When
someone is sentenced to death row and condemned to die, they are left hopeless
and without possibility of being saved.
This was not Jesus mission, nor should it be ours. He came to die on the cross so that all the
rules and laws that people could not keep (all 613 of them) could be
“fulfilled”. That means when you mess up
and break one law (big or little) that God doesn’t kick you to the curb and
take away your place in Heaven. He
offers you forgiveness and grace and mercy.
Therefore, we have to remember that we have been forgiven and offer love
to those around us who might not have yet experienced the love of Almighty God. Even those who have experienced Him, but
still choose to live inappropriately (in our opinion), Jesus says we are to
love them, as He loves them.
When you
study the teaching of Jesus, you will find that His harshest words were never
directed at the sinner people! He showed
compassion to those living sinful lives and caught up in sinful ways. His harshest criticisms were for the
“religious” people who kept track of whether everyone else was following the
rules or not. It was those people He
called a “generation of vipers” and “whitewashed tombs” and “hypocrites”. The religious people tended to point out
everyone else’s failures and shortcomings, professing themselves to be saintly,
holy, and righteous, all the while having their own sins hidden and concealed.
No one is
without sin. All of us have failures and
are prone to make mistakes and get it wrong.
Sometimes we get it wrong a little and sometimes we get it wrong a
lot. But, regardless Jesus loves us.
People will
choose to change, or they will choose to live in their sin. But it is their choice. Jesus offered love and hope and mercy and
grace. He was “full” of grace and truth.
We are to offer the same. We may
disagree with them, we may believe their lifestyle is wrong, we may think their
choices are bad… but it is not our responsibility to convict and condemn them
of their sins. That is Jesus job. It is our job to follow His Word and to love
them. Love them, because He loves us.
Each and
every person on this Earth has the freedom and the right and the option to love
and serve and worship God. We were all
created by Him, for Him, to worship Him.
We cannot inspect someone’s heart or motives and determine the level of
their commitment to God. We do not know
the struggles, the pain, the hardships that they have faced. Therefore, Jesus tells us to act in love, and
He will judge their sin and motivate them to change and be more like Him.
Read John
Chapter 17.
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