Make Them Stop Sinning!

I enjoy British humor and it reminds me of a show that my mother in law watches in the afternoon called "Keeping Up Appearances", maybe you've seen it. If not, it is a show about a lady that does exactly what the title says. She spends her life struggling to make herself look like life is absolutely perfect. Unbeknownst to her, everyone else sees her life as it really is and they find her quite annoying. This to me is what we as the Church seems to do too much of. We are a group of people that work hard at looking the part. Put on the right smile, wear the right clothes, use the right words, etc. Then we look down on those who aren't also working to keep up appearances.

We need to take a closer look into what Jesus did, how He lived and how He treated those  who sin. Where? Well how about the woman brought to Jesus who was caught in adultery. Interestingly enough when the pharisees brought her to Jesus they were looking him to support the law in saying she ought to be stoned. Get her Jesus, get her! Likewise when we see someone in sin our first response tends to be "get her". Or even if another Christian does sin, we are ready to pounce like a lion on it's prey. This was NOT Jesus' response to this woman. I think we can assume she was Jewish, making her an insider that should have known better. But Jesus still did not endorse what the religious leaders were ready to do. Jesus response, "He without sin cast the first stone". When is the last time we took that approach? I assure you even if it was today, we still don't do it often enough. We are generally ready at a moments notice with a bag of stones at our side.

So we have gotten it in our head that we are God's instruments of justice instead of mercy. How did this happen? Too much time in just the old testament? Nope, because if you read it you see an incredibly patient God who waited generations before punishing a nation in disobedience. I believe it is the human condition, that is we are sinful people with sinful tendencies. Who this applies to is anyone who would say they are a human being. Your creed, race, religion, sex, age... none of these changes it. Think about it. Someone cuts you off and you wish a police officer was there to "get em". What, you've never ever cut someone off even accidentally? Get real. We've all done stuff we regret OR better yet don't even realize we've done. Not to mention the intentional things either done maliciously or with "good intention". Actually, the list is REALLY long. Hence the reason we all need a savior! Because at the end of the day we all suck without Jesus. But in Jesus we are a new creation and He is at work in our hearts and lives changing us.

So you can come at people all day long trying to push people to change their ways but it is generally unproductive. Yes, there are times where someone who is a follower of Christ needs to be gently confronted on sin in their life. But it's not our job to go looking for those instances. And even when one is in front of us we need to be sure we are to do something about it.

Still think you need to be hard nosed to people that are in the wrong? Then read 2 Timothy 2:23-25, and then check this out 2 Timothy 4:2 "...Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage...", or one more Ephesians 4:2,  "Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love." We need to get this! Not one of us deserve it, so not one of us is fit to dish it out. So when you need to help someone get back on the somewhat "straight and narrow" make sure you've removed the plank from you own eye first.

Here is the the wrap up. You can teach about sin all day long and even get people to change their ways and be a good person. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back because that's all it's worth. There will be a lot of "good" people in hell. A relationship with Christ is so much more. Let's preach, teach and love people and allow God to bring the change to the heart that only He can and you'll see the person changing because of the love of God, not because you told them to. A heart change! It's what we all need and should desire for each other.

Remember when the whole world knew John 3:16?

(if you see typos in any of my posts let me know)