Monday, October 7, 2013

John 3: No condemnation

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. - John 3:16-19 KJV

Sometimes I think that we are ineffective at drawing people to Christ because of our condemning attitude.  We spend our time attacking those that we perceive to have sinned when that is God's job.  It is not, and has never been, our duty to judge.  'Judge not', Jesus said, 'lest  you be judged.' Yet we persist.  We take  inordinate pleasure in pointing out the sins of others.  With the anonymity of the internet, we call complete strangers vile, hateful, names on behalf of the Lord.  But, if we think we are being 'Godlike" we are sorely mistaken.  If God did not send Jesus to condemn the world, what right do we have to judge?  Our heaping coals of fire on the sinner does not change their lot one bit.  It only points out the condition of hatred in our own hearts; hearts that bear the darkness that Jesus said we would love more than we love the light.  John 3:16 is an effective way of spreading the gospel only if we have no condemnation in our hearts.

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