Chapter 18 - The Disciple and Unbelievers
Bonhoeffer- 'Christian love sees the fellow-man under the cross and therefore sees with clarity. If when we judge others, our real motive was to destroy evil, we should look for evil where it is certain to be found, and that is in our own hearts.
But if we are on the look-out for evil in others, our real motive is obviously to justify ourselves, for we are seeking to escape punishment for our own sins by passing judgment on others, and are assuming by implication that the Word of God applies to ourselves in one way, and to others in another. All this is highly dangerous and misleading. We are trying to claim for ourselves a special privilege which we deny to others. But Christ's disciples have no rights of their own or standards of right and wrong which they could enforce with other people: they have received nothing but Christ's fellowship. Therefore the disciple is not to sit in judgment over his fellow-man because he would wrongly usurp the jurisdiction.'
My thoughts-
Joh 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
This commandment is new because Jesus Christ, God, became flesh (Mat_1:23) and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14) and up to that happened mankind did not have that privilege. Our Creator came to live with us, among us, and He revealed His love in so many ways it would be impossible for any to write of them all. (Joh 21:25) Jesus says- a new commandment I give you… LOVE OTHERS AS HE HAS LOVED US.
This did NOT do away with the OLD commandments- but ADDED to another in a new dimension due to the circumstances.
Christ came and revealed His love to us in a way that would have been impossible to reveal except He did as He did.
The previous Ten Commandments were given out of love- and we were told to LOVE GOD and LOVE MANKIND, but we could NOT have been told to LOVE as we have BEEN LOVED, not until our God came in the flesh and revealed His love so perfectly to us.
We are told to LOVE as HE LOVED.
Did Jesus judge and condemn every sinner He came in contact with? Did He teach us to be harsh and judgmental against others? Did He teach us to talk about and tear down each other because of our faults? Did He spend so much time talking about how bad others are that we learned that from Him? No! No! NO!
Yet we find it so easy to pass judgment from the least little thing to the greatest things we are there ready to point our finger at others and talk about their short comings, as if somehow their faults are more awful than our own, they are NOT.
All sin, no matter the sin is worthy of DEATH. How does lying warrant the same penalty as murder? All sin is contrary to the love of God and if there it no love for God there is death because God is life! All sin is breaking the commandments of our God and in need of forgiveness, repentance.
We cannot pass judgment upon someone without sinning ourselves, it's impossible!
We are NOT commanded to judge, we are commanded to LOVE. We are to leave the judging to GOD.
Whenever we are tempted to pass judgment and focus our thoughts on another person's shortcomings, we'd better be ready to recognize we are at that very moment committing a sin.
When we are told that we are forgiven as we forgive others, God means what He says! When we judge rather than forgive others we are being judged, not forgiven.
Please LORD, help us to be FORGIVERS, and NOT JUDGERS. Please LORD, help us to FORGIVE so that we may be FORGIVEN, so that we may be YOUR DISCIPLES!
Bonhoeffer- 'Christian love sees the fellow-man under the cross and therefore sees with clarity. If when we judge others, our real motive was to destroy evil, we should look for evil where it is certain to be found, and that is in our own hearts.
But if we are on the look-out for evil in others, our real motive is obviously to justify ourselves, for we are seeking to escape punishment for our own sins by passing judgment on others, and are assuming by implication that the Word of God applies to ourselves in one way, and to others in another. All this is highly dangerous and misleading. We are trying to claim for ourselves a special privilege which we deny to others. But Christ's disciples have no rights of their own or standards of right and wrong which they could enforce with other people: they have received nothing but Christ's fellowship. Therefore the disciple is not to sit in judgment over his fellow-man because he would wrongly usurp the jurisdiction.'
My thoughts-
Joh 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
This commandment is new because Jesus Christ, God, became flesh (Mat_1:23) and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14) and up to that happened mankind did not have that privilege. Our Creator came to live with us, among us, and He revealed His love in so many ways it would be impossible for any to write of them all. (Joh 21:25) Jesus says- a new commandment I give you… LOVE OTHERS AS HE HAS LOVED US.
This did NOT do away with the OLD commandments- but ADDED to another in a new dimension due to the circumstances.
Christ came and revealed His love to us in a way that would have been impossible to reveal except He did as He did.
The previous Ten Commandments were given out of love- and we were told to LOVE GOD and LOVE MANKIND, but we could NOT have been told to LOVE as we have BEEN LOVED, not until our God came in the flesh and revealed His love so perfectly to us.
We are told to LOVE as HE LOVED.
Did Jesus judge and condemn every sinner He came in contact with? Did He teach us to be harsh and judgmental against others? Did He teach us to talk about and tear down each other because of our faults? Did He spend so much time talking about how bad others are that we learned that from Him? No! No! NO!
Yet we find it so easy to pass judgment from the least little thing to the greatest things we are there ready to point our finger at others and talk about their short comings, as if somehow their faults are more awful than our own, they are NOT.
All sin, no matter the sin is worthy of DEATH. How does lying warrant the same penalty as murder? All sin is contrary to the love of God and if there it no love for God there is death because God is life! All sin is breaking the commandments of our God and in need of forgiveness, repentance.
We cannot pass judgment upon someone without sinning ourselves, it's impossible!
We are NOT commanded to judge, we are commanded to LOVE. We are to leave the judging to GOD.
Whenever we are tempted to pass judgment and focus our thoughts on another person's shortcomings, we'd better be ready to recognize we are at that very moment committing a sin.
When we are told that we are forgiven as we forgive others, God means what He says! When we judge rather than forgive others we are being judged, not forgiven.
Please LORD, help us to be FORGIVERS, and NOT JUDGERS. Please LORD, help us to FORGIVE so that we may be FORGIVEN, so that we may be YOUR DISCIPLES!
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