Giving Love a Bad Name

What If I told you that you could be the only glimpse of Jesus that someone sees on a day to day basis? What if I also told you that judgmental Christians are the worst advertisement for the gospel?

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Well both are true, which one are you? Are you a Christian that loves unconditionally? or One that is constantly talking behind everyone’s back? Reality is that you are either one or the other because you can’t truly be love and still judge. Love and judgement do not go hand in hand.

I think that love is thrown around so much that the meaning gets lost, but the Bible says that love is patient, kind, slow to anger, it doesn’t envy others, boast, self-seek, and it keeps no records of wrong. Love never fails. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired and worn out of failing others. Love doesn’t fail, so let’s go love.

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College is the worst with judgment. It’s like a broken record everyday of hearing- “Did you see him trashed last night?”, “Man she was so wasted”, “What is she wearing?”, “Why do they post that if they cuss all the time?” We have to start taking responsibility for our lack of love because Jesus’s greatest commandment is to love God and to love others. Why do we think we know what God is doing in someone’s life? I’m thankful to serve a God that sees us for our heart rather than judging our outward appearance. I challenge you to start getting to know people’s heart rather than defining them by what you've seen them do. If we stop judging and let God begin to work in and through us, we might start to see change. That starts with love because… if you love someone, they’ll listen to you, but if you try to fix someone without first loving them, they will resent you.

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We have to realize that we are all just as broken as everyone else. There are people on Earth — all on the same playing field— and then there is Jesus. There isn’t a ladder that climbs us to Jesus and puts us above everyone else. We are all struggling with the same stuff, so why don’t we love one another and get through our struggles together? Jesus didn’t die for a select few, he died for an entire world because we are all in desperate need of him just as much as the person next to us. Stop boasting yourself above others because your sin “isn’t as visible as theirs.” If you judge others, that exposes brokenness: And what about the porn addiction? What about how you treat your family? What about finding identity in relationships? We don’t have to already be fixed before deciding to follow Jesus. Sin is what qualifies us for Jesus because of what he already took care of on the cross. I’m not justifying that sin is okay, but I’m challenging us to view others how God truly sees them.

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No one is exempt from Jesus. We have to speak life into other people. You can’t breathe a dead word on a spiritually dead person and expect them to get up and walk. Jesus spent his whole life meeting people exactly where they were in life; so don’t spend your life avoiding the people that Jesus spent his entire life engaging.