The past couple of days I have read numerous posts online dealing with the current equality issue and I’ve even made a post or two of my own. On my drive to work today I had the chance to think about it some more so I thought I’d give one more final thought on the subject matter.
I was driving to work and was listening to Casting Crowns. The song “Jesus, Friend of Sinners” came on and I felt like that song was extremely relevant to some of the issues that we’re debating over. The song lyric says, “Jesus, friend of sinners open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers.” This is true. As Christians, we are sometimes quick to judge. Sometimes that can be purely out of self righteousness, but I think for the most part it comes from the passion we feel through our convictions as well as the love for our country as Bible believing Americans.
I also started to recall some stories from the Bible, and yes, they were from the New Testament. I know that there are some people who have a problem with what Leviticus says about homosexuality. So for the sake of argument, let’s leave that out and look at things from a different perspective. Thinking about the stories from Jesus’ ministry here on Earth, I realized one thing. Jesus was always around sinners. I got to thinking about Jesus with the tax collector, Jesus with the woman at the well, Jesus with the thief on the cross. Throughout the New Testament you see Him fellow-shipping with murders, thieves, prostitutes, adulterers, and probably everyone else you could think of. This led me to one conclusion. If Jesus were here today, where might we find Him? We’d more than likely find Him right smack dab in the middle of any one of these LGBT rallies. But He wouldn’t be there protesting, He’d be there trying to fellowship. He’d be talking with them, perhaps even taking them out to lunch or dinner. And He’d be doing just what He was doing in all those stories we’d read, He’d be sharing the gospel with them.
There is one thing though that was evident in all of those stories. After Jesus showed love and acceptance to these people and after He shared the truth of the gospel with them, He left them with a command, a sort of calling. He’d tell them, “Go and sin no more.” He’d tell them to turn from their sinful ways, or lifestyle, and follow Him and sin no more. This is a perfect model that He left for us to follow. He was a true example of how you can love and accept someone without condoning their sins. It showed love, acceptance, and ultimately forgiveness.
When Jesus left this Earth He gave us a command. This was to go out into the world and share the gospel with everyone. We are called to be His disciples. He left us with the perfect example of how to do this. We are to love and accept people, to forgive them. However, we are also to share the truth of the gospel. We are to judge the sin, but not the sinner. We are to share with people the truth, even when it’s hard to do. We offer them love and forgiveness, but also urging them to “Go and sin no more” just like Jesus did in the New Testament, even when it’s not “politically correct.” If Jesus was politically correct in His day, He wouldn’t have been crucified. We have not been called to be politically correct; we have been called to be light in a dark world. Our job is to love people like Jesus loved people, but most importantly our command is to share truth.
ryancampbellsthoughts 