Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
This comes to my second point - that if you draw the line too fine it will backfire, and eventually you'll also be disapproved. Of course we do draw the line - there is such a thing as rightness, holiness, and truth. But there is also love and forbearance. Those who cast stones will eventually get bonked. Those who make a living casting stones will find themselves under a pile.
Jesus didn't say the woman had no sin. She did. Jesus said, "Who among you has no sin, cast the first stone."
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I think you've really hit on something and I think it goes to the core of the problem in general.
We have this need to be right. I'm not just talking about ego, though that comes in, too. I'm talking about this need to think that if we find truth we will know what to do in every situation. We will "be clear." We will "have it down." We think we will know how to think, how to meet, how to dress, how to "be one," how to interpret the Bible--everything.
Isn't that what truth does? Doesn't it tell you what's right in every situation? So if some person or set of people think they've really, really found the truth, they naturally will feel that they have this certainty, or will want to feel like they have it, and can tell others what to think and do. It's just fallen human nature. How can you say you are in "God's best" if you don't know what to do in just about every situation?
Well, actually God does tell us what to do in every situation, but it doesn't play out like the Pharisees thought it would, where you feel you are right about everything and can tell everyone else what to do. It's actually very different. What we know to do in every situation is this:
Love God, love people and be ready to sacrifice for both. THAT is the truth that always applies, and if we don't have that, we don't have anything. It doesn't matter how much you think you know or are right about. If you can't speak it in self-sacrificial love it's worthless. That's what 1 Cor 13 tells us.