Matthew 7:21-23
Not everyone who calls me their Lord
will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only the ones who obey my Father
in heaven will get in. On the day of judgment many will call me their
Lord. They will say, “We preached in your name, and in your name we
forced out demons and worked many miracles.” But I will tell them, “I
will have nothing to do with you! Get out of my sight, you evil people!”
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
I
spent several hours last night visiting with lifelong friends, and I
cannot count how many times we opened our phones and used Google to
answer a question. How old is this person? What happened to that one?
Was a certain celebrity ever married? It was all trivial conversation
(and I promise, we were not gossiping!). But rather than speculate, we
tried to obtain the facts with regard to our conversation. Now, before
you say it…we all know that you cannot believe everything you
find on the Internet. But we were pretty confident that our search
results were at least somewhat more accurate than our own guesses and
opinions!
In the end, I would say that we were pretty careful to
keep the conversation non-judgmental and loving…to honor our friendship
AND our Christian faith. We discussed old neighborhoods, politics,
religion and philosophies…and we “kept it clean” - and kind. If I had
to gauge the visit by whether we loved and respected each other…and
loved others as God loves us…I would have to say we did pretty well!
If
you go back and read all of Matthew 7, it begins with Jesus admonishing
us to…”take the log out of your own eye. Then you can see how to take
the speck out of your friend’s eye.”(v. 5) Sadly, there are a lot of
people who have some pretty big “logs in the eyes”...and yet, they
continue to tell others how to remove their “speck.”
I am
reminded of the phrase we often hear…”Love the sinner…hate the sin.”
Someone recently asked me exactly how I thought the two could be
separated…and it’s a valid question. Because if we “hate the
sin”…aren’t we judging the sinner? Aren’t we elevating ourselves to
Jesus’ level by even naming another person’s “sin?” In other words,
when I claim in the name of Jesus Christ that I am right and you are
wrong…how have I loved like Jesus? Haven’t I somewhat set myself on
equal footing with Him? Where does the Bible teach us that we are ever
bumped up to that rank?
Many of us consult Google or another
search engine several times each and every day in an attempt to gain the
facts. Yet we fail to do the same with our LORD and Savior. We fail to
search the heart and teachings of Jesus and ask Him…”What do You have
to say about this? What is the proper response from me? How do I share
You and Your love for others in this situation?”
Somehow, I
think Jesus will show us that a lot of the ranting, raving,
demonstrating and judging that we are operating in are not the answer.
And that’s a start. Once we discern what He desires, we can truly begin
to act as His disciples. We must recognize that to behave otherwise
truly is evil…and totally counter to what Jesus has commanded of us.
I
may not always get it right…but I want to be able to say that I always
loved Jesus with all my heart…and loved others as He loves me. If I do
these things, I trust that He will handle the rest. What about you?
©2015 Debbie Robus
No comments:
Post a Comment