razzelflabben
Contributor
there is something I don't understand....I thought we were talking now about the churches judgment of the woman in the story, not the church in general or whether or not the judgment of others affects our standing with Christ....why does the topic keep changing without warning? Never ever, does man's judgment override God's grace, that is beyond clear in scripture, just as we are not to judge is abundantly clear in scripture.Exactly.
What I was trying to express earlier is that I hope that people recognize that self-righteousness and unfair judgement of a person's past (that's LEFT in the past) is NOT reflective of God (even if that sort of judgement happening in large numbers in a church---by people claiming Christ's name). That whole attitude does violence to the Gospel, and really (IMO) is "another spirit" ....."another gospel"....."another Jesus"...that Paul spoke of in 2nd Corinthians 11:4.
That being said, we know that people do judge and often unfairly, we know that we all judge others sins and hold some against them, case in point, the child molester. That does not change God's grace, only our view of God's grace. NO I AM NOT SAYING A CHILD MOLESTER SHOULD TEACH YOUNG CHILDREN as was previously accused, what I am saying is that because we cannot see the heart of man, we all make judgment calls and this is a biblical concept. Just because one person draws a line at X doesn't mean that X is where the line should be drawn, in fact, I would say, as I have been trying to get to the point of saying, that maybe it provided an opportunity to teach about God's grace vs. man's judgment rather than simply judging the congregation as judgmental and wrong. I mean, if these people didn't realize that they were wrong or why they were wrong, it would seem to me that more than just an emotional response would be required to bring redemption into the picture, a redemption that requires confession and repentance. Maybe even a discussion like this one, in which the congregation could lay out the lines they are willing to live by, rather than just a, "here, let me make you cry and move on as if I won some game".
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