April 22, 2015
Condemnation
One of the lessons on the DVD
series used in my adult Sunday school class focused on the importance of loving
one another. The speaker stressed the fact that people will not feel loved if
they feel condemned. While I understand what he is trying to say, I’m wondering
if the church should be putting more emphasis on condemnation. “Therefore,
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because
through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of
sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2 NIV).
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Gail;
-----If you want to get close to God, you must get intimate with Him. What is it to get intimate? It certainly is not to generalize. Generalization is the opposite of intimacy. The more you do it, the less personal you become because the less specifically you treat each of your loved one’s particular aspects. For instance. Char and I have pretty much concluded that we are not going to turn into Spring chickens for a few more decades. In fact, these two poulards are headed for Autumn. So we’ve begun offsetting this mounting trend by introducing a little exercise into our routines. I know how much this comforts Char’s sense of destiny. Thinking last night was good for working on the routine, I suggested and we did an exercise session before giving each other a back-rub and going to bed. But when I awoke this morning, Chari was sleeping in the guest room. It seems the exercise was late enough her system would not go sleepy before my system went to snoring. Intimacy will remember to suggest the exercise thing earlier. Generalization won’t.
-----We must likewise go intimate with our concepts of God and godliness. He calls us to a life of love for everyone, not just our friends only, but also even for our enemies. What could that be all about? Well, the path to perceiving what it is to love enemies begins with this imperative’s usefulness for sorting out what love might actually be.
-----Psalms and Proverbs are both rather replete with admonitions against such as sitting in the seats of scoffers, hanging with thieves, walking in the ways of fools, etc. The Bible is also clear about not giving ourselves to the enemy’s company. So hanging with others is not an indelible part of loving others. But Jesus showed how we must be salt of the earth. Like the Lord set up Ezekiel as a watchman for Israel, He has set us up as watchmen for the people around us, both friend and foe. As salt and watchmen we are responsible for blowing the trumpet at dangers to the unsuspecting. Like the minor differentiation between sooner rather than later makes exercise more effective, the minor differentiation between sounding a warning and condemnation makes love more apparent. Love is to do what effects God’s sense of good unto your loved one (and the Lord gave our enemies to be our loved ones.) So we must intimately sort between the details of what our enemies want and what the Lord needs for them. Where we find overlaps, we find gems of opportunity towards making friends of enemies by having been watchmen for them as well.
-----Therefore one of the many ways we must intimately love God is by keeping the minor distinction between warning and condemnation a clear distinction for warning without condemning. And that’s what love does for an enemy. It gives clear warning in complete regard for his security within the warning followed.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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