bubbles on the border
July 6, 2009 READ: 2 Corinthians 4:8-18 We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. —2 Corinthians 4:18 Stuck in a long line at the US-Canada border, Joel Schoon Tanis had to do something to lighten the mood! He reached for his bottles of bubble-making [...]
insulting your mission field
“Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”. . . “Neither do I. Go and sin no more” (vv.10-11).
READ: John 8:1-11
Adam’s words slashed through the room like a grunge band at a polka fest, his ugly phrase hanging in the air like diesel exhaust. He had just used an inappropriate term to describe homosexuals.
I did find Adam’s word choice to be offensive. Yet it somehow seemed less offensive because, well, he was talking about sinners. So it was okay, right? Wait! Time out!
My friend Pam boldly challenges Christians who use disparaging names for other people. She pointedly asks, “Since when did it become okay to insult a mission field?” And she also likes to ask, “How do you think Jesus would handle this?” How would Jesus handle this?
A group of Jerusalem’s religious leaders once brought a woman caught in sexual sin to Jesus (John 8:3-5). But they weren’t concerned about her spiritual well-being. They just wanted to trick Jesus, and maybe to kill her. Jesus wouldn’t have any of it. He didn’t view the woman as a target for derision and judgment—He saw her need. So He told her accusers, “Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” (v.7). Then Jesus said to the woman, “Go and sin no more” (v.11).
When we as believers in Jesus resort to name-calling, we lose our basis for representing Him to that world. They aren’t likely to see Him through the smog of our flippant, self-righteous, and even hate-laced language.
God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). And we aren’t helping “certain” sinners come to Jesus when we call them names instead of sharing the good news of God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ with them. It’s a lesson we need to keep in mind when dealing with those who, after all, are part of our mission field. —Tim Gustafson
Do you quickly judge other people whose struggles and temptations are different from yours? How did Jesus demonstrate the idea of loving the sinner and hating the sin?
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