If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead
to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not
leading to death. —1 John 5:16
{CHAMBERS} “If we
are not heedful and pay no attention to the way the Spirit of God works in us,
we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other people are failing, and
then we take our discernment and turn it into comments of ridicule and
criticism, instead of turning it into intercession on their behalf. God reveals
this truth about others to us not through the sharpness of our minds but
through the direct penetration of His Spirit. […] One of the most subtle and
illusive burdens God ever places on us as saints is this burden of discernment
concerning others. […] Can Jesus Christ see the agony of His soul in us? He
can’t unless we are so closely identified with Him that we have His view
concerning the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so
wholeheartedly that Jesus Christ will be completely and overwhelmingly
satisfied with us as intercessors.”
{ELGIN} (1
John 3:15) “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no
murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” When we judge sinners and thereby
condemn them, it is if we hate them. Hate
means to have an intense or passionate dislike.
It is one thing to reject sin … God rejected our sin, but loved us, even
in the light of the fact that without the blood of Jesus washing us, we were
condemned to hell. We should not embrace sin, but nor should we condemn the sinner.
God gives us
spiritual discernment for spiritual purposes.
Ridicule and criticism come from the flesh, not the Spirit. (Galatians
5:19–21) “… the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred,
contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,
heresies, envy, murders ….” Rather than condemning we should be
interceding. What the people you see
need is Jesus, not your contempt … just like you did before you received God’s
grace and mercy.
Jesus ate with sinners,
that doesn’t mean that He embraced their sin, although He was accused of
that. And when confronted over it , He
replied .. (Mark 2:17) “When Jesus
heard it, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but
those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to
repentance.’” Do you want to do what Jesus did?
Well, there you go.
No comments:
Post a Comment