Fear No Fear

“We also were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various desires and pleasures, living in evil and envy, filled with hatred and hating each other” (Titus 3:3). What is it about us as a human species that gives us the right to get all hepped up and ignorant toward other people who were EXACTLY the same as we were? I mean, ALL have sinned (Romans 3:23). ALL have fallen short (Ecclesiastes 7:20). We may do it differently, but we ALL do it (James 3:2). Does it matter if your sin is lying and another’s is adultery? Does it matter if you looked at a woman with lust and another looked at a man? Does it matter if your sin is one of the ‘accepted’ ones and another does sin that makes your stomach turn? Speeding while driving when you covenanted with the DMV to drive the speed limit is sin (broken a law you promised to uphold). You may have told a white lie to avoid a talking to at work over a thing that didn’t really matter. Another may have raped the neighbour’s dog. It is the SAME THING: sin. “For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point only has become guilty of all of it” (James 2:10). How DARE we get on a high horse with someone over their sin. We were sinners too. Are we not now? No! We are cleansed. “Everyone who is fathered by God does not practice sin, because his seed resides in him, and he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God” (1 John 3:9). How do we get people from their side (sinners) to our side (fathered by God)? Compassion! Not judgment. Not condemnation. Even the Jesus didn’t come to condemn people. “For God did not send his Son into the world in order that he should judge the world, but in order that the world should be saved through him” (John 3:17). When you see sin, be compassionate. Jesus was. Never condoned it and never judged someone for it. How do we do that? With the FRUIT of Holy Spirit which is available to ALL believers. Take and eat. Be as He is through His power and His fruit and His love which resides in you (1 John 4:16; Romans 8:38-39). Be LIGHT, not shadows. Love, not disgust. They are just like you were. Remember that. And remember, they too can be as JESUS is (Ephesians 5:1-2, 1 Corinthians 11:1, 1 John 2:6).