Tuesday 10 July 2012

Issue 25 - Day 2


Titus 3

Titus 3:2-4
2)  To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.
3)  For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
4)  But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,

“Judge not, lest ye be judged”, is how this is said in other places in scripture. This puts a bit of a different spin on it however, “love others, as Christ hath love you.” When you see people do you judge them? when they make mistakes do you forget the times when you made the same mistake? Our duty is to help them through these trials so that they too can know the love of Christ in that area of their lives.

A few years ago I was sitting outside the basilica of St. Peter in Rome with a friend. As we eat our packed lunch we began to judge the people in the queue. In order to get in the guards would decide if their shorts, skirt or dress were two short, or their top to low. Basically if you showed too much skin you didn’t get in. So our conversation went along the lines of, “in”, “in, “no chance”, “in”, “no”, “in”... and so on. Eventually we turned to discussing solutions instead. If we had brought a load of cheap trousers, or sarongs we could have made a fortune.

Our attitudes usually declare if we think someone should be allowed into the kingdom of God. He decides that! Instead think how to help people get in. Make a difference by witness, not a judgement. You were once the same.

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