Good Judgment

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you." (1 Cor. 5:12-13)

It is clearly not the church's job to condemn the world, right? Yet we are known for doing just that. How can we be God's agents of redemption when all non-Christians hear from us is judgment and condemnation? They feel cursed by us when they should feel loved. Our perspective has to change from one of us vs. them to a conviction that it is us for them against the powers that dominate them.

The reason there was immorality among the believers in Corinth and other Greek cities is that they were loving and accepting broken people from out of a thoroughly immoral background. It is messy business being involved in God's mission in the world. That was not their mistake.

Their mistake was that, even after people received Jesus, they weren't calling them to a commitment to live in the freeing Way of Christ. They let grace become license. But in thinking they were free, they were really still enslaved.

There are no perfect people, including Christians. We must love and accept people in their messiness yet walk with them towards purity. As John Burke puts it at Gateway Church in Austin, a church reaching many lost people: "Come as you are . . . but don't stay that way."

Finding Favor

Okay, I'm back. Sorry for the lag in the blog. I've been away and otherwise preoccupied.

"With what shall I come before the LORD
and bow down before the exalted God?..." Israel asks.

"He has showed you, O man, what is good," responds Micah.
"And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:6, 8)

God's grace is amazing. But it is a covering for the sins and mistakes of those whose hearts are legitimately turned towards God. Worship offered appart from a lifestyle of integrity is insincere flattery. Pleas for forgiveness that come from an unmerciful heart are offered in vain. Prayers for blessing spoken without showing compassion for the sad plight of others aren't well received. God is after our hearts. And when he has our hearts, it gives us a posture of mercy, fairness and compassion towards others.

God, my heart is yours. Shape me to reflect your concern for justice, your love for mercy, and teach me to walk humbly with you. Amen.