It has been pasted as statuses, comments, and even pictures. It has recieved multiple likes, comments, and shares.
It says:
"Don't judge someone just because they sin differently than you do."
Wow! What a profound yet simple statement.
This really got my mind thinking and the more I though about it and talked with others, the more I started to LOVE it!
As Christians sometimes we get caught up in the idea that we aren't as bad as other people.
We read our Bibles
We pray
We go to chruch
We listen to the Christian radio stations
We wear bracelets that say "WWJD"
We even post scripture verses on our facebook statuses
God has to love us more than the "other people" the "heathens"
WRONG!
He loves us all equally, and just because you do all of the things above doesn't make you a better person.
One thing I learned growing up in a Christian environment was that most people who claim to be a Christian are really good at hiding things from other people.
They have their secret sin. Whether it be pornography, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, or inappropriate music. They have it and they hide it from their "church friends". When they show up to church on Sunday they place their little halo on their head and pretend to be God's gift to the church. They have everyone fooled. no one would believe they struggle with any addiction. Their life just seems so put together.
If you asked the people they work with or the people they party with on Friday nights how they are there, you would be shocked that they were talking about the same person.
And yet these people are usually the first one to point the finger if they see anyone else slip up.
The Westboro Baptist Church (if you can even call them a "church") comes to mind. They prance around picketing funerals and events holding signs that read "God Hates Fags". 1st of all God doesn't 'hate' anyone. If you look up the definition of the word hate it is referring to having an extreme dislike and hostility towards. And If God is love... then how can God also be hate? 2nd did they completely overlook the first verse in Matthew 7 that says "Do not judge"?
Is homosexuality a sin?
Yes...but so is lying, stealing, showing favorites, disrespecting parents, taking the Lord's name in vain, being jealous, gossiping, worrying, and pride. Have you committed any of those sins recently?
The Bible says in James 2:10,
"For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point is guilty of breaking all of it."
Pretty straight forward isn't? And to clarify the point even more the book of John tells us the story of the adulterous woman:
John 8:1-11,
"But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn He went to the temple complex again, and all the people were coming to Him. He sat down and began to teach them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. “Teacher,” they said to Him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do You say?” They asked this to trap Him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse Him. Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with His finger. When they persisted in questioning Him, He stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then He stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only He was left, with the woman in the center. When Jesus stood up, He said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”"
Right there is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. All these religious men were judging this woman because of a sin she committed, and what was Jesus' response? Basically, if any of you have NEVER in your life committed a single sin then you can throw the first stone of punishment at this woman. And they began to leave, because none of them were perfect they way they expected that woman to be.
The only one at that point who was capable of throwing a stone was Jesus Christ himself, but He didn't did He? No. He showed mercy and love to her. He told her just to go and not to do it again.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. If Christ is supposed to be our sole example and He made it clear how we are to behave.... how have we gotten so far off track?
I heard someone say the other day,
"There won't be gay people in heaven, because there is no such thing as a gay Christian."
I don't know how I feel about that. Because being in the flesh and having our sin nature inside us, we are going to fall. Saying a gay person won't go to heaven is the same as saying a liar won't go to heaven, because both offenses are the same in the eyes of a holy and perfect God.
I love the song "Jesus Friend of Sinners" by Casting Crowns at one point says:
"Nobody know what we're for, only what we're against when we judge the wounded. What if we put down our signs, crossed over the lines, and loved like You did."
We are all "plank eyed saints with dirty hands and a heart divided."
What if today you crawled down off your high horse and realized that you aren't as great as you think you are. What if you realized the only thing that makes you something at all is the fact that Jesus loves you and lives within you (that's if you have accepted Him) and with out Him you are NOTHING more than dust of the earth He formed you out of.What if you realized that Jesus loves the homosexual, the murderer, the child molester, and the thief, and the drug addict just as much as He loves you. What if you realized that your judgmental attitude was causing way more harm than good and....
What if you realized that when you judge people you have no time to love them.
Jesus spent most of his time with people the religious people of the day called "unclean" and "evil"
He didn't jusge them and He didn't condemn them. He loved them and invested in their lives.
Why can't we do the same? Reach out to someone this week, show them the love of Christ.
If you are struggling with being judgmental, take a good look at your life through the eyes of Christ and ask yourself if you as perfect as you think you are, and then ask Him to forgive you and to give you His love to pass on to others.
Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I'm not perfect, and I don't claim to be, but before you start pointing fingers... make sure you hands are clean!
Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging
others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others
are just as entitled to as we are.
We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation.
We should be lenient in our judgment, because often the mistakes of
others would have been ours had we had the opportunity to make them.
When we judge or criticize another person, it says nothing about that person; it merely says something about our own need to be critical.
Live...Laugh...Love
Until Next Time,
Racheal <3
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