December 22, 2000

At times our intolerance of sin and our desire to please God can carry over into judgements and criticisms (of ourselves or others).  We may begin with a good motive of wanting to please God in every area of our lives and then as time goes on that good motive may turn into legalism and perfectionism if we don’t watch it.

If we find ourselves critical and judgmental of what we perceive to be sin or faults in the lives of those around us then that should be a warning sign that we need to get before God and get into His Word and receive a greater understanding of His love.

Our criticisms of others will not draw them into a closer relationship with the Lord.   The Bible says that the goodness of God leads us to repentance, (Romans 2:4).  If we criticize people and expect them to quit doing what they’re doing because of what we say then we’re no better than the Pharisees.  Our desire should be to get people to obey God, not because we say so, but because they desire to please God out of a sincere heart.

God doesn’t expect anyone to clean themselves up and be perfect before they come to Him.  That was how it worked under the law.  But we are not under the law anymore but under grace!  We are to preach the Good News which is that God has provided a way of forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the way to live free from sin.  No one can live pleasing to God apart from Jesus and it does no good to criticize a person’s sin when they can’t do anything about it anyway.

That doesn’t mean that you condone sin in a person’s life and tell them it’s O.K. to do, but if you really and truly want to help them, then you will minister life to them through the love of God and not death through a religious law.   What is our motive?  Is it really to help people or is it to show them how much we know or how good we are?