A few things have come to a head this week to inspire
this post.
It started on Monday, when my friend Mitch and I had some
interesting conversations over coffee (well, tea) on a variety of topics,
including being judgmental of others, and how we ought to refrain from it. We
didn't delve into this topic deeply, but I feel like even that brief discussion
opened my eyes and ears to picking up that same message elsewhere.
On Tuesday, I read a blog post from Dan Pearce, of Single Dad Laughing fame, that summed up, quite humorously, the various ways people
not only butt into your business, but judge you for the things you do and the
decisions you make. I saw myself in quite a few of these, both as having been a
recipient of said judgment, and in being guilty of judging others:
I'm currently in the midst of reading "The Grace Awakening"
by Chuck Swindoll, and yesterday I got to a chapter about letting go. The main
point was that God's grace allows you the freedom to either choose to follow
him or succumb to the same sinful temptations you were unable to fight off
without his help. This freedom, however, also extends to others and how you
deal with them. If they are to have true freedom to pursue grace, then you must
let them go, and that means refraining from interfering with their decisions.
It's up to God to work through those decisions and work in their lives, and
it's not up to you to decide what constitutes a poor decision or a good one. In
other words: butt out, don't judge, and just continue to show them love and
compassion.
Then today I came across this graphic posted on Believe Out Loud's page:
I liked it because, as I've stated in previous blog posts, the whole "love the sinner, hate the
sin" adage has never sat well with me. And today it occurred to me that
the "hate the sin" portion is actually a form of judgment. And
judgment, by its very nature, is unloving. So how can you love yet hate at the
same time? You can't.
Some might interpret this to mean that loving the person without hating the sin means condoning his sin, but I don't believe that's the case. A person's sin should not be within our realm to pass judgment on-- that is solely God's domain. It's not even our business to decide what is and what isn't sin. Again, that's entirely between God and the "sinner". All we can do, all we should do, is take our fellow, fallible human being and love them.
And how best to love someone than by refraining from passing judgment on them?
Some might interpret this to mean that loving the person without hating the sin means condoning his sin, but I don't believe that's the case. A person's sin should not be within our realm to pass judgment on-- that is solely God's domain. It's not even our business to decide what is and what isn't sin. Again, that's entirely between God and the "sinner". All we can do, all we should do, is take our fellow, fallible human being and love them.
And how best to love someone than by refraining from passing judgment on them?
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