I like the story of the woman who committed adultery. To me it's obvious what each of us can learn from it. Unfortunately many Christians seem to be very judgmental and hyprocritical in the eyes of the rest of the world. Frankly, I'm not sure it's not warranted. However, if we would truly adhere to these verses I think we find the world would see Christianity in a different light. Verse 12 again makes sense to me-Jesus truly is the light of the world, following him will lead to eternal life and an escape from the darkness of sin.
Verses 31-38- I think I understand but after these verses, I'm confused. He talks to the people and in verse 30 it reads that many of the people put their faith in him but as the chapter goes on it seems like they get into an argument. I have to say.... if these people weren't very educated (and even if they were) Jesus can be a bit confusing and perhaps confrontational -hope I'm not being a bad Christian here : ) but on the surface if Jesus was saying things like "your father is the devil, a murderer and liar that's not probably the way to win over the masses. We have the luxury of reading, studying, and discussing these quotes, those people did not. On the other hand, they had the luxury of physically being with Jesus, witnessing the miracles and asking him questions face-to-face. How awesome would that be????
Tammy - I understand your comment about judgmental and hypocritical people which is why many people are turned off to Christianity! However, the question is then what do we do with sin? Are we just to turn our backs? Matthew 7:1-5 talks about this subject too and there although Jesus says to take out the plank in your own eye, he then follow this with "AND THEN you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." I think the whole counsel of God tells us we can't ignore sin but how to deal with it is a very delicate and difficult issue. I think the answer lies in our motives. Love must overshadow all and we must seek God's wisdom, love, timing etc. Obviously we also must first deal with any sin or our own that is getting in the way.
ReplyDelete