Judging

 

There was a movie with the title, “What’s love got to do with it?” That movie was about the life of Tina Turner and there was also a song by the same name. I won’t go into the details of the song or the movie, but I was thinking about what does love have to do with the way we live our lives as Christians? Obviously, love is at the root of our entire life with God. The commandments are summed up by loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

In these turbulent and uncertain days, are we loving our neighbor as God commands us to? From what I have observed, because I have been guilty of this, there is a lot of

judging in regards to what other people are doing. We can all have our opinions about how we should be handling certain situations but are we loving our neighbor when we stand in judgment of them? I am not talking about someone who blatantly sins but really about personal preferences and what they think is the right thing for them to do. There are multitudes of decisions to make these days and we do not all think alike.

Romans chapter 14 talks a lot about the liberty we have in Christ and specifically about food. Some people were vegetarians and others were convinced they could eat any food

they wanted. There is no right or wrong in the aspect of food, it is a matter of preference.

Our preferences go way beyond the realm of food. We are to love and help each other, not judge someone for what they decide to do. Romans 14:10 says, “But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ”

We would all be more cohesive as the body of Christ if we accepted others as they are without trying to persuade them to do things the way we do. 1John 4:11 sums it up perfectly, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love other people.”

 

Pastor Marty