The preacher stood in a busy street in Ojuelegba and spat words at the passers by who were nearly cringing at his message:
“Repent now or you will go to hell! The fire of God will consume you if you are living in sin! Jesus is coming soon! Repent or you will burn in hell! Come and give your life to Christ!”
His face was contorted in anger as he rained fire, brimstone and condemnation on the people moving all around him. Nobody came close. They literally grimaced at his words and shrank from him. He was scaring them off with his message.
Now I ask: Is anything wrong with this zealous preacher’s message?
Yes there is and I will tell you why.
The message of the cross is a message borne out of love, not anger, hate and condemnation. It is a message given in hope and assurance of God’s mercy and grace. It isn’t meant to put fear into people’s hearts but rather to draw them close in order that their eyes might be open to the truth.
But when we preach and spew condemnation instead of hope, we can never accomplish the reason why we are sharing the message of the cross in the first place. We will only succeed in pushing our audience away and making the gospel unattractive to the hearers. It gives them the wrong impression of who God is and what God is all about. Instead of seeing God as the God who loves them, they perceive Him as a fearful and terrible God who will strike them dead once they sin.
Yes, we persuade and it takes the Holy Spirit to convict but we must persuade right if we want people to listen. We must persuade in love!
These people judge their hearers whilst also forgetting that they themselves are not perfect. Automatically, they scare people away with their judgmental attitude. They forget that they are also man with their own faults, so what gives them the right to condemn another?
Why are they trying to remove the speck in another’s eye when they are blinded by a log in their own eye?! It makes them worse off than the person they are judging cos by condemning him, they condemn themselves (Rom 2:1-3).
We have all heard it severally, judge not and you will not be judged. There is only one law giver and Judge and that is God. But somehow we Christians have not been able to understand what it means not to judge.
Judging is pointing out someone’s wrong whilst also condemning the person for doing that wrong. It is usually accompanied with anger.
There is nothing wrong pointing out a person’s wrong but it is better not to do it judgmentally, rather tell the person the truth about what he did in love and humility, not in anger and condemnation.
See the difference between judging and telling the truth in love:
A ‘judging’ person says: “This thing you did is wrong! You will be punished! You will go to hell!”
A person who tells the truth in love says: “ What you did is wrong dear but God will forgive you and change you if you repent. I do not condemn you.”
There is no cajoling just pure simple love. Telling the truth in love is Jesus’ style. Remember Jesus encounter with the woman caught in adultery? He approached her with love, tells her He doesn’t condemn her and asked her to go and sin no more. That forsaken, unloved adulteress must have been so touched!
Love conquers even the coldest of hearts. That’s why the gospel of peace must be preached in love for our God is love.
Judging paints Christians and the Person we represent in a bad light. Let’s not judge but continue to tell the truth in love whilst bearing in mind that we are what we are, not by our strength, but by God's grace and like everyone else we are weak and in need of God’s help!
God is the only one in the best position to judge because He alone is perfect, without a fault and totally sinless. That’s what makes Him the righteous Judge who judges without partiality.
“Repent now or you will go to hell! The fire of God will consume you if you are living in sin! Jesus is coming soon! Repent or you will burn in hell! Come and give your life to Christ!”
Now I ask: Is anything wrong with this zealous preacher’s message?
Yes there is and I will tell you why.
The message of the cross is a message borne out of love, not anger, hate and condemnation. It is a message given in hope and assurance of God’s mercy and grace. It isn’t meant to put fear into people’s hearts but rather to draw them close in order that their eyes might be open to the truth.
But when we preach and spew condemnation instead of hope, we can never accomplish the reason why we are sharing the message of the cross in the first place. We will only succeed in pushing our audience away and making the gospel unattractive to the hearers. It gives them the wrong impression of who God is and what God is all about. Instead of seeing God as the God who loves them, they perceive Him as a fearful and terrible God who will strike them dead once they sin.
Yes, we persuade and it takes the Holy Spirit to convict but we must persuade right if we want people to listen. We must persuade in love!
These people judge their hearers whilst also forgetting that they themselves are not perfect. Automatically, they scare people away with their judgmental attitude. They forget that they are also man with their own faults, so what gives them the right to condemn another?
We have all heard it severally, judge not and you will not be judged. There is only one law giver and Judge and that is God. But somehow we Christians have not been able to understand what it means not to judge.
Judging is pointing out someone’s wrong whilst also condemning the person for doing that wrong. It is usually accompanied with anger.
There is nothing wrong pointing out a person’s wrong but it is better not to do it judgmentally, rather tell the person the truth about what he did in love and humility, not in anger and condemnation.
See the difference between judging and telling the truth in love:
A ‘judging’ person says: “This thing you did is wrong! You will be punished! You will go to hell!”
A person who tells the truth in love says: “ What you did is wrong dear but God will forgive you and change you if you repent. I do not condemn you.”
There is no cajoling just pure simple love. Telling the truth in love is Jesus’ style. Remember Jesus encounter with the woman caught in adultery? He approached her with love, tells her He doesn’t condemn her and asked her to go and sin no more. That forsaken, unloved adulteress must have been so touched!
Love conquers even the coldest of hearts. That’s why the gospel of peace must be preached in love for our God is love.
Judging paints Christians and the Person we represent in a bad light. Let’s not judge but continue to tell the truth in love whilst bearing in mind that we are what we are, not by our strength, but by God's grace and like everyone else we are weak and in need of God’s help!
God is the only one in the best position to judge because He alone is perfect, without a fault and totally sinless. That’s what makes Him the righteous Judge who judges without partiality.
Perfectly said dear..God bless you. And may inspiration from above never lack in your life...keep the banner flying....
ReplyDeleteThank you for this writeup ...is very important for Christians to understand that 'Gospel' means 'Good-news', so God expects us to declare the message of love to unbelievers, both in words and lifestyle.Bible called us Salt and Light, lets portray who we are.
ReplyDelete