Don Myers

10/24/10

 “Jesus didn’t rebuke in this story. If we are to follow his example is there ever a time when it is ok to beharsh or rebuke others?” (referring to Luke 7:36-50)

  Jesus had anamazing skill at making His point, even when totally calling out lies or sin,with a soft word and a gentle hand.  SoI’m not sure there is ever a call for us to be harsh, and the word rebuke oftenconnotes such harshness.  If Jesus wasn’tharsh, in all his wisdom and power, who am I to be in my limited humanwisdom?  Too often a harsh word conveys judgmentand condemnation, emotions that don’t fit with being a follower of Jesus.  However, Paul clearly says that “speaking thetruth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) is a sign of maturity and growth in our faith.  We aren’t supposed to turn a blind eye to sinor unrighteousness in others.  But wemust recognize that we are in the same position as our brother and just asprone to sin, and so any correcting should be done with grace and mercy andempathy.

“If God loves everybody, does that mean we have to too?” 

  This makes me smile – thanks for your honesty! Your logic is spot on; if God loves someone,what possible justification could I have for not?  Am I smarter than God?  Yes, we should love everyone too!

          But Godcertainly knows how hard this is, and that our difficulties with people aroundus are part and parcel of our own selfishness. It’s a difficulty that we should be struggling with every day, prayingthat God would give us the strength to love the unlovable just as Jesusdid.  And I pray that Jesus wouldstrengthen those around me to love me when I’m the one hard to love!

          Loving othershas huge impacts – both on those loved and on those who see us love.  See John 13:34-35, John 14:21 & John15:9-14 for some good insight on this.

“Obviously God loves us all, but do you think he punishes us or atleast puts obstacles in our way for something we did that was wrong?”

In short –nope!  God’s love is so thorough, socomplete, so unconditional that everything He does serves to nurture us andhelp us become more mature. It is important to distinguish between Godpunishing us and disciplining us; when God disciplines it is to help us learnand grow up, and is an expression of His love. (Hebrews 12:7-11)  But God doesn’tever put up obstacles or tempt us (James 1:13) – His actions are always to helpus.

“I’ve struggled for years with how God can have love and compassion forpedophiles…?”

  (MikeMagnotti, former police officer and New Song elder, gave a wonderful answer tothis, which I’ll try and relate along with my comments)

   Often when westruggle to love someone as God does, especially when we see their sin as soheinous as this example, we are basically asking them to become more likeus.  We shudder at the magnitude of sinslike child abuse and murder, wondering how anyone could be so bad?  There’s a big problem here – God doesn’tgrade on a curve!  My job is not to judge(“how could they be so bad?”) but to recognize that God sees my sins just liketheirs.  (Romans 3:9-12)  This certainly does not mean we condone anykind of sin, or consider it “acceptable”, but we must recognize that every oneof us is in need of God’s grace and forgiveness, from the “worst” to the “leastworst”.