Tell Me Your Story
There are stories of pain walking through the doors of our
sanctuaries each Sunday. Those stories should cause us to revisit what we preach and how
we preach it. I’m reminded of an interesting interaction Jesus had with
a person caught in sin. Initially, he didn’t address the person’s sin.
His first priority was to address the accusers. Jesus showed compassion
to the sinner. He didn’t condemn the sinner, but He did, however,
redirect the sinner. At your church, are you simultaneously showing
compassion and helping point people in a new direction?
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We tend to get all panicky in church when someone isn’t confronted immediately with their sin. Unfortunately, the idea of confrontation translates all too often to mean “shun them if they don’t stop doing whatever they are doing”. I wonder if it isn’t because we like to think in terms of either/or instead of both/and. I happened to be discussing this passage of scripture this morning with a friend. His conclusion was, “God’s mercy opens the door for His instruction.” We can (and should) both love and “instruct”. We can do both, but we can’t really flip the order and instruct before loving.