I have been spending the last few days in contemplation about my walk with God. I have been encouraged by a few online friends that I shouldn’t talk about sin, simply show love and draw people to Christ with that. I am not sure I can or will do that. While I agree Jesus is about love, there is another commandment that Jesus talked about first.
Jesus told us that the first and greatest commandment is to love our God. Part of loving someone is knowing them, and trying to please them. Obedience is a big portion of showing our love for God. If I were to tell you I loved my wife, and yet couldn’t tell you where she was, what she liked to eat, or even a phone number to get in touch with her.. could I truly mean I love her?
To love God means to search Him out. Yes we are going to fall, and sin. That doesn’t give us a free excuse to do so. I also agree that each of us are at a different stage in our walk. Some of us have a long way to walk, and some are amazing people who simply flow with God’s will. I want to be one who flow’s with God’s will always, but I am not there. I am no saint. Just a sinner saved by grace. I try not to judge others because I know where they are may not be where they were, and it is definitely not where they are going to be either. Yet I cannot sit by when someone says I am Christian, and then continues with no fruit. It is not love to sit by while your children burn themselves in a fire, the fire is real, and if my children are walking towards it I will try to stop them. I may not be able to hold them back, but as the quote from Spurgeon says, “”If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”
I agree tact is very important, and there are times to realize that talking to someone will not get through them. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict and it is God’s job to judge. That does not mean that we should not continue to spread our light, nor does it mean that we can go on sinning freely. Christians must live in repentance. It is not a single act, but a lifestyle. Anytime we begin to sin, we must try our best to immediately turn from it and apologize sincerely to God, because it should grieve our soul to have harmed Him.
In Christ,
Brian