Monday, April 20, 2009

Am I here to judge or condemn your behavior?

Am I here to judge or condemn your behavior? If so, you could judge me 1,000 times over! No, I'm here to let you know that God accepts and loves you as you are, unconditionally. (Or is John 3:seventeen wrong?)

8 comments:

  1. God's Love...yea!

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  2. Joel--John 3:17 is absolutely right: Christ did not come into the world to condemn it. He sent the church out to condemn the world for Him! (j/k)

    Actually, this ties into what I preached n Sunday. I based my talk on the Prodigal Son parable. One thing that struck me in the story is that the father has no words of rebuke or condemnation for the returning son. There's only love, joy, and celebration.

    If God greets His wandering children that way when they return to Him, how is it that we think we have the right to treat His children any differently?

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  3. Nancy... right on!

    Richard... Excellent! Do you mind if I put your words in a blog post? I'll make it clear that you were kidding, but your words make the point that the church seems to think its job is to go around condemning people!

    I love the prodigal son story. Really, a story of the loving, accepting father. You're right, it was a bunch of love, joy and celebration! That's exactly how we ought to be treating each other!

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  4. Joel--Post away!

    In the prodigal son story (I called it the "Parable of the Running Father" on Sunday) the son tries to apologize, but the father doesn't even respond. He's too busy making preparations for the welcome home party.

    That is an awesome picture of the heart of God!

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  5. So true, Richard. The father's concern is his son having come back to life, figuratively speaking, and not with where he'd been or what he'd done. The father was truly celebrating!

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  6. What are you guys talking about? The Father of the prodigal son gave him a list of conditions before he could accept him.

    1. Repent of your sins
    2. Confess ALL your sins
    3. Make a commitment that you won't mess up again
    4. Re-dedicate to the Father
    5. Obey
    6. blah, blah, blah, ...

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  7. Bino, true that. We should be focusing on your list (and so much more) so that we'll truly understand all the conditions of God's grace. ;)

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