If only You would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
They speak of You with evil intent;
Your adversaries misuse Your name.
Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord,
and abhor those who rise up against You?
I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
Psalms 139:19-22
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Did Jesus agree with sinning? No. But yet he was still able to mingle among sinners. Jesus did not stand apart from them and shake his finger at them. Not our Jesus. That is just not how He operated. Remember last week, I said God shows us our yuck without making us feel yucky. Jesus jumps right on in and mingles, he builds a rapport with people instead of throwing stones and He makes connections. When Jesus met up with the Samaritan woman at the well, He did not tell her how horrible she was, instead He stated, “… then neither do I condemn you… Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11).
We are so quick to point fingers at other people, especially non-believers. We cannot hold non-believers to the standards we would believers – they don’t believe what we do. Our first goal should be to win them over and show them God’s love and mercy. I say this in regard to Psalm 139:22, where it says, “I have nothing but hatred for them, I count them my enemies.” The psalmist does say this, but we have been called to love those in the world.
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Matthew 5:44
As followers of Jesus, He obey His commands…and if He said that we are to love our enemies…then we are to love our enemies. He is not saying “Love all the sin that your enemies do.” Nope. He is saying—love the person, hate the sin.
Sin is something that we human beings have been cursed with; so we all are familiar with it. Some us run from it…some us hide from it…some of us try to ignore it. But how we deal with OUR sin as believers is different than how others outside of our belief system do. It’s so easy to say, “Well, that <someone else’s actions> is wrong.” But have you ever stopped to think why it’s wrong? A lot of the stuff that we believe is wrong is based on things that we have read in the Bible. We believe that our Lord God has set forth instructions so we can tackle this life we are living. But, if someone does not believe in God or serve Him or read the Bible, why should they care if He thinks they are sinning? (This is geared towards people who truly see nothing wrong with what they are doing.) We, as believers, can introduce them to God first, and let God work his ever-changing-power on them.
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Lord, help us to know how to handle the uncomfortable situations we experience in life and give us guidance to know what to do. Thank You, Lord!
About Ahmee Bronaugh
Ahmee, as I read the Scripture for this week I had similar thoughts. Thank you for bringing it out so clearly. What a perfect example Jesus was for us to follow. He hated sin, but, oh how, He loved the individuals. He took time with them and because of that their eyes were opened so they could see and turn from their sin.
I’m reminded of Romans 10:13-15 that admonishes us to share God’s Good News. We’re not to do that by pointing fingers, but instead follow Jesus’ example, “Jesus jumps right on in and mingles, he builds a rapport with people instead of throwing stones and He makes connections.”
“We, as believers, can introduce them to God first, and let God work his ever-changing-power on them.” Yes, I’m praying for guidance, too, so I’ll do my part and let God do the rest.
Jesus couldn’t have made it any clearer…both His words and His example. thanks for this excellent reminder, ahmee! <3