Catchy title to grab attention!

Do I have it yet?

1 John 3:5-7
5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Here at Ministering Reconciliation, we are all about restoring balance and harmony. Most, without context will misunderstand this statement. They will think that I am watering down the gospel to find balance in all areas. Let me be frank: There is NO equivication to the gospel, there is NO one even remotely great enough to be even close to Jesus and what he did on our behalf. HE IS THE GREAT GOD. When it comes to balance and restoration, it only comes when we live a life completely devoted to Jesus. All attempts to use Jesus as a bolt on to our faith fall flat on their face and make us more hypocritical. That said, we are left with my disturbing and overwhelmingly frustrated moment with some of my brethren in Christianity. We are to love people, love the un-Godly, love, love, love, love! At what point though, does our love for them cause us to change? At what point does it cause them to change? Let me give you a more concrete example. When I got married, I subscribed to the notion that I should give 100% of myself to my wife. All my desires and attention and focus. I told her that after Jesus she could have all of me. She did the same. What is left is a homogenized version of us we call "Samber." When you look at us, we want to get to a point where you, our child(ren future tense), and our immediate family cannot tell where Sam stops and Amber begins. In our speech, our motives, our actions, we are striving to become one. What started out as a chubby video game playing sci-fi watching immature guy became a slightly less sci-fi watching, less video game playing and definitely more mature version of myself. I attribute this all to my wife. As we have sought to become one, I have absorbed some of her likes and dislikes as my own. Just as she has mine. While we are different in special ways, our unity is what makes us special and makes me love my wife all the more. Christ views us this way.... We are his bride, and are to become as one as I just described with him. Selah. Moving back to the disturbing portion. When I do something that my wife doesn't like, she still loves me right? (yes), she may be mad, she may be sad, she may think that I was acting like an idiot, but she still loves me. She most often has a viewpoint that explains why she is mad/sad/whatever. When looking at the viewpoint, it often makes what I did seem less like the smart choice I was making to more of the negative possibly damaging choice that I have committed us to.

Why is it that we as Christians feel that to love someone we must allow, tolerate, and justify sin?

Christians have lost touch with the ability to love someone despite their sin and allow the holy spirit to bring conviction to that person as they get closer to us and see how God works in the broken. Instead, we keep them at arms length, hoping they don't touch us and all the while saying "we love them so their sin is ok" while including parenthetically "come to my church and pay me so i can have more money." At what point does this stop? When does the moral truth of Christianity become replaced with relativism? At what point does the verse above become
5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take justify our sins so we don't have to feel guilty about living in sin continually . And in him is no sin because there really is no sin, if you don't believe it . 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. stop listening and reading here because John was off his rocker and this is not love... No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
I am sincerely appalled at Christians for 2 reasons. First that we ridicule people for sin when we sin as much as they do. We hurt those who we are trying to save! We are supposed to run towards them and love them THROUGH the change. Defending them, believing that God will work in them the same way he worked in us! As Judah Smith puts it on the "Jesus Is music project" : "Is our Gospel big enough to welcome everybody in our church? Are we big enough for actors and actresses and artists? Are we big enough to say 'come on, you are welcome here, this is family, this is your home, we'll love you.'" The second reason I am appalled at Christians is we go the completely other way. we accept every change, exception and doctrinal disagreement as just as holy and set apart as the gospel itself! While we are not to judge them, we are not to tolerate or accept open sin in our church. We have to be able to allow God's grace to be evident. The same grace that doesn't tolerate our sin. But we cannot continue to justify their actions and lie to them openly that their behavior is ok and sanctioned. We have to push them, plead with them to encounter Jesus and learn what HE Wants them to learn. The same message in different colors and shades. Please understand the balance. Verse 7 says "7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous." We so often are led astray by what the bible says are "winds of doctrine" and begin equating those to our walk with Christ and even embracing some of them as acceptable. dear friends, I plead with you to not be lead astray. Do not give up your freedom in Christ for the lies of the enemy. Selah

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