People "wrong" us all of the time. To be honest, because we are all different and have different personalities and beliefs on certain issues, we are bound to not see eye to eye at times... But why does this sometimes cause us to be at war with each other? In addition, why is it that whenever we see one of our brothers and sisters in the church doing something wrong that we feel that we need to share it with everyone else without going to them first?
So what do we do whenever someone in the Church does something wrong against us, or whenever we see someone doing something wrong in general?
Well, what does Christ say?
In Matthew 18, Christ goes into deep details about the ways that we should interact with other believers whenever they have done something wrong. First of all, there is for some reason the idea that the Bible says that we as believers should never judge someone for what they do. I want you to know that this isn't the case. The Bible does speak a lot against the type of judgment that is hypocritical... in other words, you point the finger when you should probably take a good look at yourself because you are probably guilty of a whole lot more fault. Matthew 7:5 says, "First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye." Notice that Christ said for us to FIRST remove the crud from our own eye SO THAT we can deal with the crud in our friend's eye?
In addition, the Bible speaks against the type of criticism in the Church that is derived from bitterness and gossip. To sum it up, Christ wants us to hold each other accountable OUT OF LOVE for the other person... and only when we are in right standing with God to do so. Just take a look at Matthew 18:15-20... there is a process here of getting things right with our brothers and sisters that keeps us from gossipping, slandering (ruining their reputation or how people see them), and bitterness. This process is essential to keeping the peace within the Church that God desires... in addition, this process is important because we love each other enough to address problems with them in a loving way.
So do you want to know more about this in detail? Check back this Thursday, May 12... OR come to IGNITE tomorrow night at TCN at 6:30 as we will be discussing this in further detail.
You are loved!
Ready and committed,
Pastor A.J.
Youth Pastor, TCN
So here before us is now the challenge from last night IGNITE. What are we going to do with the grace that we have been given from God? Are we going to simply accept it in a very greedy way and choose to show no similar compassion and forgiveness with our brother or sister? Or do we step out in faith and love and start living real genuine Christlike lives that are filled with forgiveness?
ReplyDeleteRemember, in the parable of Matthew 18 the King forgave the servant for MILLIONS of dollars worth of debt!!! This servant should have served his whole life in prison in order to repay the debt! Instead, the King showed mercy and forgave the WHOLE DEBT! That is the perfect example of our relationship with God! Romans 5:8 says, "God showed his GREAT LOVE for us by sending Christ to die for us while we WERE STILL SINNERS!" We should have paid for our sin, but God forgave us of a HUGE debt!
So why do we act like the servant in the parable of Matthew 18 sometimes? Why do we go off forgiven of a HUGE debt and then turn to one of our brothers and sisters and demand that they pay us the small amount of debt they "owe" us? In other words, we are so willing to accept forgiveness of sin or wrongdoing... but are extremely reluctant to give it. I stop and think about this whole concept... even non-Christians would say that that type of behavior is two-faced and not cool. So why is it as "Christ-followers" that we think that this behavior is okay?
Let us take a good look inside ourselves and learn how to love the way that the King loves us. We can become genuine! We can become real! We can become holy!
Will you take that step of faith today and start living for Christ?... I pray that you do.
You are loved!
Ready and committed,
Pastor A.J.
Youth Pastor, TCN