cell group sharing tonight...:)

One thing that is hard for Christians to understand sometimes is how to treat sin, when God has called us to a life of holiness. The problem is that sometimes we reject the sin and the sinner at the same time. But God doesn't reject people. In fact, Jesus said that He came to heal not the healthy but the sick. (Mark 2:1)7

John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

“พระวาทะได้ทรงบังเกิดเป็นมนุษย์และทรงอยู่ท่ามกลางเรา บริบูรณ์ด้วยพระคุณและความจริง เราทั้งหลายได้เห็นพระสิริของพระองค์ คือพระสิริอันสมกับพระบุตรองค์เดี่ยวของพระบิดา”

Quote: “Jesus was 100% grace and 100% truth, not 50% grace and 50% truth. He made sinners feel sinful, yet they couldn’t keep away from Him!” – Randy Alcorn, The Grace and Truth Paradox

If anyone could be both, it was Jesus.

Jesus was holy, yet He made sinners feel loved. This is part of God’s glory. Can you believe that? The One who can judge us has mercy on us!

 What is grace? – receiving something we don’t deserve
 What is truth? – reality

 (You don’t have to say aloud.) Have you ever had a situation where you had a friend you really loved, but this friend was doing something you didn’t agree with (and possibly it was because what they were doing was hurting them)? What would you do?

God is holy. Yet I think one reason that God hates sin is that sin hurts us so much. God loves us so much. Sin hurts us. Sin hurts God because He loves us. (Gal. 5:1 – freedom, and John 10:10 – life to the full)

Christianity is not a religion of rules, but of love. Yet this does not mean condoning sin. Sin is NOT okay.

 How do we show we love people and yet not accept what they are doing?

Jesus was called by His enemies as a “friend of sinners”. Let’s look at some stories of Jesus when He associated with people that His society considered sinful (or unacceptable, like Samaritans).
Luke 7:36-50 – Anointing of Jesus by the sinful woman
Luke 19:1-9 – Zaccheus
John 4:1-30, 39-42 – The Woman at the Well
John 8:1-11 – Scribbling in the sand
(Note that the Pharisees, the religiously strict, wanted to reject these people!)
 How did Jesus treat people so that He showed them what they were doing was not right, and yet He did not reject them?

Now let’s talk about love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
And then, “The greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13)
Love is faith
Love is hope
Because love is believing the best in a person, giving them the benefit of the doubt.

There is a quote from a song: “Why did they nail His hands and feet? His love would have held Him there.” Jesus loved us that much.

And, 1 John 4:18 – “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
I like to think that the best way to make a person behave is to make them feel loved – not demanding love, but free love.

 What do you think?

Babies die when they don’t feel loved, when they don’t receive enough hugs and care.
Love is like the breath of life. Withhold love, and people will wither. (หัวใจฟ่อ)
Not loving hurts people.
Sin hurts people
That is why we must love, yet not accept sin.

I am not perfect. I have failed many times, with my family, friends, even people I don’t know – to show love. Yet God shows me GRACE as He teaches me His TRUTH. I think this lesson is one I might spend all my life learning, because it is so important.

Even for a wicked person we don’t know, we must have compassion. We are called to love our enemies. Hate hurts us too.

 How can we love our enemies?

“It is the greatest feeling is to be fully known, and fully loved.” – if we can help give that to a person, we can help them to grow. “The One Who knows us best, all our weaknesses, even, loves us the MOST.”

We may say we don’t agree/don’t like what someone is doing. BUT Jesus calls us to love them. He did it for us.

family
coworker
friend
person we don’t know

 What does it mean to love the sinner and not the sin?
Jesus said for us to forgive, that our Heavenly Father might forgive us as well. I have this idea that unforgiveness may be the unpardonable sin (I don't know, but it could be) - if love is like the breath of life, then I think that is why it is so important for humans to have forgiveness and God does not withhold it from us. We need it to live!