Full of Love (2)

Judge Not

Luke 6:35–38 “35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.””

“If we are judging people, we have no time to love people.” - Mother Teresa

Judgement - not forbidden to exercise judgement (who are friends are, right and wrong, etc.) but rather, judgement in the sense of condemnation where you judge their character and therefore because it does not measure up to your standard, you withhold your love from them.

Impatient with them, care not for their well-being. Envious of them. You compare yourself with others and find yourself better than. You dishonor others - gossip. You seek your best interests over others. You are easily angered. You have every record of how they have wronged you. You are the victim. You ever rejoice at other’s downfalls? You don’t believe the best in them, you’ve given up hope for them...

Why would we do that? Because we are conditioned to think that change happens through threats, shame, intimidation, and manipulation.

But if we have faith in God’s transforming power in ourselves then whatever the appearances may be, we are to have faith that God is working in others to do what only God can do.

This means that we must never condition our love and acceptance of people with a judgment about how much or how little progress they are making in their relationship with God.

But we can think that if I love this person then they won’t change. (Imagine if Jesus did that with you)

But this betrays where our faith is, our faith is not in God’s transforming power but our confidence is placed in ourself as if your ability to shame, intimidate, or manipulate people to change is greater than God’s transforming Spirit.

James 4:12 “12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?”

But does radical unconditional love towards sinners make light of sin? Absolutely not.

Rather, we make less of sin when we make it a matter of more or less.

Sin is only taken seriously when we realize that, apart from Christ, we are all in the same septic tank of condemnation together. It is taken seriously only when we realize that sin has been irrevocably exposed, condemned, and overcome on the cross.

It is the very love of Christ that conquered sin. Jesus defeated sin by loving the Father and loving the sinner.

And we repeat this condemnation of sin and acknowledge its absolute seriousness every time we love others as Christ has loved us - unconditionally, despite our sin.

Conditional love could never accomplish this.

So regardless of whether people are believers or not, and regardless of how things may appear, we are called to unconditionally embrace them with Christ’s love and trust that God is at work in their lives, despite their sin, as he is in our own lives.

Here’s the full circle moment - when we love as Christ loves, (pursue love and desire spiritual gifts) we give occasion for the Spirit of God to apply Christ’s victory over sin on Calvary to other people’s lives.

When we love others unconditionally we see the power of the Spirit at work to transform / edify people’s lives.

“A thing must be loved before it is loveable.” - GK Chesteron.

Who in your life, can you switch from conditional to unconditional love and see God’s life-transforming power work?