Greetings Dear Reader,
We are excellent at compartmentalization. I have a friend who insists that his morals
and values in his personal life have no bearing on his actions as work. He claims that it is necessary to do his job
to lie and cheat others. He dismisses
his actions and “just business”. Please
note that he is my friend.
It would be easy to compare my values and his and dismiss
him. That is not how it works. It is, however, how we often operate. We look at the failings of others and compare
them to ours to feel better about our status with God. Or we use them to show why our sin is not a
bad as that of others.
The problem we create when we do this is simple. We are judging by the wrong standards. I do not get to compare my good to some other
person’s bad. That will only yield pride
and condemnation. I need to compare my
standards to the immutable standards of God.
Only then will I truly see how much I need help.
I am not allowed to see my own good as a standard by which
to measure others. Neither am I allowed
to see my sin as less condemning than the sin of others. I spoke about abortion a few days ago and a
beloved friend weighed in on the issue.
We disagree. One of the things
that I did not make clear is that I am not allowed to judge the individual who
allows, commits, or agrees with abortion.
One of the places that Christ followers fail miserably is in
separating condemnation of an act that is inherently evil with NOT condemning the
individual that commits the act. That is
just not my place. It is my place to provide
alternatives to wrong by doing whatever it costs to do what is right. What I must do is love and give.
It is the Father who will deal with his children not the
siblings. It is enough for me to work to
follow in faith every day. If we compare
sin we exercise futility. If I fail to
love everyone I violate the great commands from God. If I speak to anyone without love I am just
creating noise that hinders the clear sweet call of Christ to everyone.
Christ followers need to shut up about social issues until
they are willing to stop condemning people.
I must compare my sin to God’s standards. Then and only then will I see clearly enough
to know that I have no place to stand in condemning others. If God loves me, with the strong coil I bear,
then he loves everyone. After all it is
not about me. It is about God and his
love for us demonstrated by his giving us his Son to pay the price for the
whole category of our sin.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer
who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home
owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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