Condemnation (2 of 7)
Series: We Don't Like Jesus
Christopher B. Harbin
Matthew 7:1-6
We like to love Jesus, until it comes down to doing what he taught us. In the first portion of this series, we looked at issues of justice. Today we turn to issues of condemnation. It is in our nature to condemn others, as we can find many appropriate reasons to condemn people. In the United States, this ''land of the free,'' we have the highest percentage of population incarcerated in the world. We are pros at this idea of condemnation and judgment. We are both good at finding people to condemn and then going about the process of isolating them from the rest of society in our haste to vilify those who break our laws and run roughshod over us. Since 9/11, we have even begun marching toward standardizing policies of holding people accountable before they have committed any crime. We call it taking measures of prevention or pre-empting attacks. The concern we ought to have as believers, however, is how closely the attitudes and actions that support all this condemnation follow the teachings of Jesus.
Jesus addressed the issue of judgmental-ism clearly in Matthew 7. He told us not to condemn others, as we are all worthy of condemnation and often simply blind to our own faults. Not only does he tell us not to judge or condemn others, but that the manner of our judgment will reflect the manner by which we ourselves will be judged.
That should be a sobering thought. If I want to condemn someone for clearly acting against God's teachings, I need to first be honest with myself that I also act against God's teachings. I can talk about the clear teaching of Scripture all day long, but I have to keep in mind passages like Romans 3, where Paul reminds us that we are every one of us sinners. I have to bear in mind that 1st John tells us that if we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and the truth is not in us. On the other hand, if all we intend to do is point out tha ...
Series: We Don't Like Jesus
Christopher B. Harbin
Matthew 7:1-6
We like to love Jesus, until it comes down to doing what he taught us. In the first portion of this series, we looked at issues of justice. Today we turn to issues of condemnation. It is in our nature to condemn others, as we can find many appropriate reasons to condemn people. In the United States, this ''land of the free,'' we have the highest percentage of population incarcerated in the world. We are pros at this idea of condemnation and judgment. We are both good at finding people to condemn and then going about the process of isolating them from the rest of society in our haste to vilify those who break our laws and run roughshod over us. Since 9/11, we have even begun marching toward standardizing policies of holding people accountable before they have committed any crime. We call it taking measures of prevention or pre-empting attacks. The concern we ought to have as believers, however, is how closely the attitudes and actions that support all this condemnation follow the teachings of Jesus.
Jesus addressed the issue of judgmental-ism clearly in Matthew 7. He told us not to condemn others, as we are all worthy of condemnation and often simply blind to our own faults. Not only does he tell us not to judge or condemn others, but that the manner of our judgment will reflect the manner by which we ourselves will be judged.
That should be a sobering thought. If I want to condemn someone for clearly acting against God's teachings, I need to first be honest with myself that I also act against God's teachings. I can talk about the clear teaching of Scripture all day long, but I have to keep in mind passages like Romans 3, where Paul reminds us that we are every one of us sinners. I have to bear in mind that 1st John tells us that if we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and the truth is not in us. On the other hand, if all we intend to do is point out tha ...
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