Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Can I be honest? I'm not entirely comfortable with the passage that stood out to me today as I skimmed 1 Thessalonians; it has such potential to come across so harsh. I wanted to wimp out and go with something a little safer, but I can't seem to get away with that today, so, well, here goes:
For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. - 1 Thess. 4:7 - 8
I mentioned last year that I read Corrie ten Boom's Tramp for the Lord and was so impressed with the story of her ministry. One of the things that has stuck with me from the book is that whenever she encountered someone who wanted to argue with her about her stand on moral issues, she'd simply reply that the individual wasn't disagreeing with her, but with God.
The plain truth is that God has given us some pretty clear standards on behavior. If I point out what God says (and I'm talking about things that are stated to bring judgement and/or to be inappropriate for God's people clearly and plainly in the Bible for all to see), I am not being judgmental. Judgment is what happens when you look at someone's behavior and make assumptions about their motives and/or intentions. Just repeating God's word about a particular moral issue is not passing judgment. If God says something is wrong, it is wrong. There's no point in getting angry at a human being for pointing that out.
Because, as 1 Thess. 4:8 shows us, and Corrie ten Boom pointed out, the disagreement isn't with man...it's with God. Scorning the messenger doesn't change the message, and marginalizing the message doesn't make it go away.
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