It has indeed become a time in which we seem to have no
shortage of things, ideas, behaviors, and people to judge. As I have been
reading God’s Word over the past few months, I have been convicted. Not for
things I’ve done. Not for the life I lived before I knew Christ. I’ve been
convicted over and over again for judging harshly, for hating the sin more than
I love the sinner, for choosing the sins to take a stand against (and those I
will ignore)… for ignoring the plank in my own eye while pointing out the speck
in someone else’s.
I am so thankful for a loving Father who reminds me through
His word that I am insanely unworthy of His grace. I am thankful that He reminds me what it was
like to be dead to Him and lost in sin. I am thankful that He reminds me that Satan
lies, deceives, and manipulates. He strikes fear in the heart of people and
causes them to make terrible, life altering, irreversible, unalterable, binding
choices that carry unbearable consequences. He feeds insecurities and feelings
of insignificance, despair, and unworthiness. He breeds hatred, mistrust, and
unforgiveness. He offers choices that lead us deeper into despair, that build
walls between us and those we love and that drive a wedge between us and God. I
remember all too well what that was like and know all too well how very much I
needed a Savior.
My heart aches for the woman who has had an abortion and for the
drug addict and the alcoholic. My heart aches for the less masculine guy or less
feminine girl who has been told that he or she is gay because they don’t fit
our perception of what their gender “should” look and act like. My heart aches
for the porn addict, glutton, adulterer, or homosexual. My heart aches for
those who feel trapped and helpless to fight his or her demons. My heart aches
because they have been lied to... deceived by Satan into believing that they
have no choice but to sin and no hope for redemption. My heart breaks for them
because so much of the Christian voice is being used to speak out against their
sin… offering much condemnation and very little hope.
Of course we as Christians should live out what we believe and speak against sin...but at what point did we become Pharisees? At what point did we
become more concerned with whether people are obeying the rules, “acting right”,
and “behaving properly” than we are with whether or not they know, love, and
follow Jesus? At what point did we decide that it was more important to police
the morals of the world than to share the love of Christ with them?
At what point did we forget that our battle is against Satan and not people?
When we spend our time talking about how “bad” people are, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that Satan is having his way with them and they are very much in need of one thing… a Savior.
At what point did we forget that our battle is against Satan and not people?
When we spend our time talking about how “bad” people are, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that Satan is having his way with them and they are very much in need of one thing… a Savior.
There are things that are wrong. There are things that we
can never condone because they are in contradiction to the Word of God. There
are things that we hate because they are of Satan and they do nothing more than
destroy lives. We hate these things for what they do to people…but we cannot
hate people nor can we hate sin more than we love the people who are trapped in
it and in need of a Savior.
We are servants of the most High God and are called to share
the message of Jesus Christ to those who do not know Him. We preach Christ
crucified. We should speak and act in such a way that the world will listen.
