The Good, the Bad, and the Judgmental

 It is a common belief among Christians that we should give God the glory for what he has done.  It is not about glorifying ourselves or showing people how great "we" are.  It should be all about him and drawing all people to Him.   We do work with God though, so we do have a part to play.   The act of our "freewill" either has to give us some credit, or we have to say that we have no freewill.   However, the fact that we have free will is because of God.   It is an interesting topic for sure, and one that can make you go cross-eyed if you think about it too hard. :)   

What I am thinking about today though is not about who gets credit for the good things, but how do we handle sin and who gets the blame for that?   The enemy is not the opposite of God.   That would make him far more powerful than he actually is, so we can't exactly flip what we believe on the good side of things to the bad and call it solved.    Historically, I think the blame has rested on the person even though there certainly is an external force pushing us to sin.   To place all the blame on Satan would make us innocent victims and mean that what we bear no responsibility for sinning, therefore making the case against God that he can't judge us for our sinful actions.   It actually undermines the foundation of Christianity.    So, we must bear the responsibility to a significant enough extent that we are guilty of the sins we commit.    

How should we view those that sin?   Bearing the responsibility is key for the individual.  But how should others view them?   Sin and righteousness are black and white.  there is no middle ground, or I can't see how their can be.   How does that translate to our identity?   It is easy to say "if you are saved your identity is in Christ".  If you are not saved, then you are a sinner.   What happens when you are saved and then sin?  How does that compute?   What if we find ourselves in a battle with sin that we can't seem to overcome for whatever reason.   God seems to still be able to use people in this state.   Let's be real, if he doesn't then he can't use anyone.    The problem comes with our man-made hierarchy of sin, where we rank sin from minor to major.   And to be fair some sin is more harmful to other people and society as a whole.  But does that make it right to classify people differently depending on the sin?    Spiritually, I don't see how it can.   It is a struggle for sure.  I've been plenty judgmental even if it is in my own mind against people who sin differently than I do.   

We have to be so careful.   There is no room to accept sinful behavior as "ok" because we all sin.  We MUST always pursue righteousness.  To ignore sin on our journey is a recipe for disaster.   But we should not throw out what God is doing or did through someone in the past because of a sin.   If that were the case, the Bible would consist of only the story of Jesus.  no other human would qualify to be used of God.  David, Moses, Noah all sinned while they followed God.   Again, that doesn't make it ok, but also doesn't negate what God did through them.  Can we/ Should we bring our thinking along to celebrate what God does through people regardless of sin?   Can we praise God for the good, and not condone the sin all at the same time?      

Time is another factor for us.   How patient should we be with those who continue to struggle with a sin? Seems the longer they remain in sin, the more justified we feel in being judgmental.   Many today believe lies of our culture.  Those lies have become deeply rooted in their belief system.  Certainly not all of my beliefs align perfectly with God, but I think I have (hopefully) continued to grow in my understanding.   But some things took me a lot of time to work out.      

I don't think there is a way to systematize this into a nice neat little formula for us to follow.    These can be tough conversations to have with people you are helping to be accountable to.    I don't think that God working through you means you're OK to continue on without addressing your sin.   That is a bad plan.  

Should we just judge the action rather than the person?    If it is good, we glorify God.  If it is bad, we call it sin and work to better the situation?   I think we can judge each situation, but we must not forget the person behind those actions either good or bad because as much as I am trying in my mind to separate this out and organize it, our whole existence is so deeply intertwined with the spiritual we can't really fully do that.  Hate the sin, but love the sinner sounds good, but many don't separate themselves from their sin, so when we hate the sin, they think we hate them.  They are NOT their sin, but that is their perception, so we have to tread lightly sometimes to maintain relationship.   

When dealing with others I find it most difficult when someone is Christian and embracing a sin, I think they have justified incorrectly, and they "should" know better.   I get pretty "judgy" when that happens.  at that point I tend to question if their faith in Jesus is genuine which in my mind seems to give me the right to call them fake and phony.  That is a dangerous assumption that could be false, but sometimes it may be true!   

Regardless of the sin we have to remember a few things:

1.) we are sinful too

2.) We don't have it all figured out.

3.) Christians and non-Christian's sin.  

4.) We all need to keep growing in Christ or coming to Christ.   whether we are moving fast or slow from sin, or even not quite ready to deal with a particular sin for whatever reason.   we should be prayerful, and patient regardless of where the person is in their walk.  (Easier said than done, I know)   

All of that said, hopefully we can spur each other on in love to be more like Christ and not just sit and twiddle our thumbs waiting for them to figure it out.   Or have someone else waiting for us to figure it out. For every situation if we can come to grips with where we are right now and look for that next step forward regardless of the person that seems best to me generally speaking, but ultimately, we need to follow the Holy Spirit dealing with our own righteousness as well as helping those around us.