The
Christian Community is much too quick to snip at one another and go after the
jugular of faults. Do we think it was
toward the Pharisees only that Jesus aimed his barbed arrow in the Sermon on
the Mount? It pricks us too and more
truly stabs us all the way in the heart.
How can we ever hope to progress in joy if we are captivated by the
splinters in the eyes of our fellow servants?
Evangelism is simply pious platitudes if we are not loving one another
unconditionally. It is laughable to hope
that we can build the Kingdom if internally we are squabbling and mocking one
another, critiquing and evaluating each other's works and motives. The crisis in the Church has never been
without but for two millennia within.
Much more damage has come to us at the hands of our fellow believers
than any non-Christian has ever caused.
Love does not begin with some lavish pronouncement but with a single
determination to overlook an offence or keep to ourselves our criticism. We can do this with Christ living through us
but without Him, we are hopelessly entangled by our grievances and
dissatisfactions. As we look to Christ
in the heat of our acrimony, the Lord will grant us His love and kindness to
come out of us at the very moment we need it.
Our Lord has a great deal of grace for those who "love too
much" or "overlook too much" it seems and if we should err, it
would be best to err on the side of mercy and compassion rather than take up
with the older brother in his complaints.
Job's friends look all too familiar to us and we must be careful we don't sit in their
camp when Job comes our way. We might
find ourselves begging the Job God has given us for mercy when the Lord "catches
up with us."
"Do
not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you
will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Matthew 7:1-2 NIV
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