unblemished lamb has already been sacrificed for us all. Jesus! Remember He came to save the world. It is time for the body of Christ to stop deeming who is worthy of God’s love, Jesus took care of that on the cross.
Look at Jesus’ life here on earth. He walked amongst the sinners; to teach them, to love them, to deliver them and restore them. Look at those who He called to walk with Him. Paul was a murderer at a time in his life. He killed Christians in the belief he was doing what was right, bound by law and tradition. Jesus set him free. Peter denied him three times. In truth he lied. And that was after the time he spent in the teachings of Christ. But Jesus loved and forgave him anyway. Take a look at the adulteress woman. (John 8:1-11) They brought her to Jesus to have her stoned to death. The people had already condemned her unworthy of forgiveness and love. What did Jesus do? He told the crowd “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” They all walked away and Jesus asked the woman, where are your accusers? She tells him they are gone. He tells her he too does not condemn her and to go and sin no more. That’s love.
We as the body of Christ walk around proclaiming God’s unconditional love but yet we are the first to throw a stone. We allow law to creep back in our doors and justify our actions with “it is written”. We are emotionally killing our brothers and sisters with our lack of love. We are crying out for them to make that walk to the altar, to lay it all down and then whisper amongst ourselves the reasons we believe they are the way they are. The body of Christ cannot be double minded. We cannot love as Christ and in the same breath judge as the world does. That is not the love of Christ. We can tell ourselves we are doing what is right, just as Paul did, but when the broken and scorned, the abused and hurting refuse to walk through the doors because they are not feeling love, it is a sad situation.
It is not our job to change them. It is our job to love them, share our testimonies with them, for us to show them what the Father has done in our lives when we were broken and scorned and/or abused, to let them know they are not alone and there is a way out of the world they are living in and for. Just as the crowd who was ready to stone the adulteress woman and they had stones in their hands ready to fire away, ask yourself, are we as the body of Christ waiting with stones in hand? Or is our arms open wide to embrace and hold those who are hurting? In all my failures and down falls in life, my sins and running away, never once has God thrown a stone at me. He has always been there with open arms, to shelter me, love me and heal me.