Hello, and Happy Thursday! Again, this week has truly flown by. Fortunately, the rain stopped sometime last night…not that I don’t like rain, it’s just that two straight days of it starts to get a little old. But, I know we needed it, and after the drought we went through last summer I vowed to never complain about rain again! Anyways, enough about the weather and the ever increasing speed of time. I read the book of Jude this morning. This sounds impressive until you realize Jude doesn’t even have chapters—just 25 verses. But, just because it’s short in length doesn’t mean its lacking in importance. It is actually a very relevant 25 verses.
“Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”
Jude 22-23
While this may sound a bit graphic, it demonstrates one of the most important aspects of the Christian faith—witnessing. Whether it be through our words, actions or deeds, we should always be reflecting Christ’s love to others—sharing the good news with them in any way we can. But, just because we are called to be loving and merciful, doesn’t mean we should be tolerant or condoning of the sin we see around us. While we love the sinner, we need to hate the sin.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when believers say something along the lines of, “Well, Jesus hung out with sinners, so therefore it must be okay for me to behave like them, tolerating the things that they are doing.” I’m sorry, but that is just not how it went down. Jesus spent time with sinners yes, but he did so for ministry purposes. He didn’t condone what they were doing, encourage them to continue sinning, or even look the other way. He went into the darkness with the intention of bringing them out into the light. He loved, and still loves, sinners, but that doesn’t mean he approves of the actual sin. In the same way, we need to love those who are living in sin, or unbelievers, but what we don’t need to do is become tolerant of the sin. We need to lovingly minister to them, just as Jesus did, with the intention of bringing them out of the darkness and into the light.
The bottom line is that we live in a sinful, fallen world. As believers, it should be our goal to witness to those around us in whatever way possible—whether it be through our words or actions. But, remember to ‘show mercy mixed with fear’, using discernment as we witness in our sin-stricken world.
On that note, I’m off to go tackle my to do list for the day. Hope you all have a great Thursday! God Bless:)