Same Token

Here's an interesting and very valid point following up yesterday's "Conversation" post: "But at the same token we can take it to another extreme where we allow the sins in someones lives to continue, never calling them to task out of love" (Cubicle Reverend).

You are absolutely correct, and the flippancy and license that comes with allowing sin to go unchecked is very real, too. There's such a balance, isn't there? My first thoughts are that Jesus' model is still best.

"Go, and sin no more." With love and authority - the same things that drew people earnestly seeking after God to Him in the first place - those words have a weightiness. To the woman caught in adultery, with everyone trying to trap Jesus into stoning her, He said, "go and sin no more." You know what you've done is wrong, and you know these guys have been no better in putting you on the spot. I'm not looking at you through your sin, but we can't deny its existence. I forgive you, and I treasure you - don't be like that anymore. You're better than that, better than them in their misunderstanding, and you can live from this point on as a child of the King. Go, and sin no more.

Real repentance is really turning away from real sinful attitudes and actions by really being transformed, really having the renewed mind Paul writes about in Romans 12. We leave behind the junk to press on towards the goal of Christ-likeness. And yeah, that needs to come out in our conversation, too - in real relationship together, focusing on who the person can and is becoming together with ourselves, rather than on their (our) shortcomings.

p.s. - this ain't easy, is it? Shouldn't be - if it was, everyone else, myself included, would be doing this already.