This is my first post in quite a while. For those of you who missed reading my posts, I apologize. During this time, I have been busy preparing a book of my poems for publishing through Poetizer Publishing. If you are interested in checking it out, this is the link:

https://poetizer.com/book/33d16594-0f84-470a-973a-794fc0ee56fa

Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”- Luke 5:31-32.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”- Romans 3:23-24

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!“- John 8:7

A Morning Prayer Poem

Abba, as I begin this new day, 
Help me to love as Jesus did.
As I trust Your goodness to guide me,
Help me to live as He lived.
Show me how to honor you, Father,
Make my faith have no ‘ifs, ands, or buts.”
Help me to trust you with reckless faith, 
And be obedient no matter what.
May I always make You my true north,
Make You the center of all that I do.
And when I say, “Thy will be done,”
May it always be heartfelt and true.
Abba, today, please show me the path
That You have anointed for me.
And with love for You and my fellows,
Help me to walk that path faithfully.
With gratitude for Your love, Abba,
And for all of the blessings You send,
Humbly, I pray this prayer
In the name of Your Son, Amen.
Linda Troxell ©04/23

 

The Christian Church, the people, and the organization, myself included, have room for improvement in the way we treat sinners. In our fallen human nature, we tend to rank sins, with ours inevitably ranking lowest. The greater we consider a sin, the less we interact with the sinner. As you know, this is precisely the opposite of what Jesus modeled for us. Do you remember how Jesus responded to the religious teachers when they asked why he ate and drank with scum? Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”- Luke 5:31-32.

While this treatment of sinners is seen consistently across the spectrum of sins, I think it is most clearly seen in the way many Christians deal with, or more to the point, don’t deal with, our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. This issue, along with abortion, is the most highly charged at this moment in church history. The passion around the issue of LGBTQ individuals as Christians is superheated. And by extension, so too are the people who represent the issue on either side. There are probably as many reasons for the difficulty of navigating this issue as there are Christians. 

For example, the very idea of homosexuality may be out of the comfort zone for many Christians. Thus, it is difficult to navigate in a Christian manner. However, as Christians, we are commanded to love all who are made in the image of God. Their lifestyle and who they love should not make a difference. We are all sinners. Our desire for sin to be ranked notwithstanding, we all fall short of God’s glory and are given grace. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”- Romans 3:23-24

As a Christian, it was difficult for me to navigate some very complex issues in a Christian manner, only while I was caught up in the feedback loop of the world that tells us that in every situation of adversity, there must be someone at fault. And the one at fault must face a consequence. In this same worldview, almost all conditions are viewed as competitive. Therefore, there must be a winner and a loser. And, of course, the winner is better than the loser. 

This worldview is divisive and, thus, not how God calls us to see our world. After all, God sent His Son to die so that we might be reunited with Him. A central theme of Jesus’ life was to unite all people from all walks of life as His church. He showed us how to love and protect the marginalized, the despised, and the unacceptable through his consistent compassion and love for those in these groups. 

Jesus didn’t ask those He helped about their ethnicity, where they were born, who they loved, or who they worshipped before He served them with love and compassion. And He did not ask them about their lifestyle. Clearly, their lifestyle didn’t matter to Him. Just think of those He used to further His ministry. He used the woman at the well, an obvious outcast, to announce Him as the Messiah to all of Sumaria. The Sumerians were a long-standing enemy of the Jews, but Jesus still ministered to them. Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!” The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” John 4:26 and 28-29

The Pharisees brought an adulterous woman before Jesus, hoping to trick Him into disagreeing with the law of Moses, which said she must be stoned to death. Jesus could have easily escaped this trap by agreeing that she should be stoned; she was a blatant sinner. But in His compassion and love, Jesus didn’t want to merely save Himself; He also wanted to protect the sinful woman. Jesus didn’t care about her sin, He cared about her. So He agreed that she should be stoned but cleverly asked the one who had never sinned to cast the first stone. This evidently shamed the Pharisees enough that they backed away. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!“- John 8:7

I know that some of you might think this essay was written to defend the right of those who identify as LGBTQ, to be Christians. But as it is not my job or my right to decide who is and who isn’t a Christian, this essay is about more than the LGBTQ community or their sin. I simply used the way Christians commonly treat this group of God’s children as a clear and indisputable example of how we Christians often shame sinners. And more urgently, to highlight our need as the church to better accept, engage, and love all sinners. 

In our walk of sanctification, we are supposed to draw closer to living as Jesus lived. To that point, I ask all of us to remember these two things Jesus said that are representative of how He lived. First, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40. And second, “…let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!“- John 8:7. 

If we are to learn to live as Jesus lived, we must first learn to love our God and our neighbors as Jesus did. We must never judge or cast stones at our brothers and sisters who were made in the image of the same God as we were. It is not our job to pass judgment on the sins of our fellow Christians. Yes, we are to counsel them about their sin, but in a wholly accepting and loving manner. This is never to condemn or judge them. It isn’t to see if their sin is more severe than ours. It is always to support their struggle with sin with the love and compassion that comes from our own struggle with sin.   

We need to understand that the Christian who cheats on their taxes stands just as condemned as the Christian who is having sex outside of marriage. Those who are steeped in pride stand just as condemned as those who lie, cheat, and steal. There is no such thing as kind of a sin; there is only sin. There is no greater punishment for one sin over another. But we should not struggle against sin because we might be punished. We should struggle against sin because it affronts our Lord and Savior. We should be more concerned with how our sin disrespects our heavenly Father than how it affects us. We will not progress in our effort to live as Jesus lived as long as we are more concerned with ourselves than with those we’ve been called to love and serve.

Let’s pray,

Lord, sometimes we forget why we are living in this world. We forget that we are here to share the Gospel, spreading the good news that Jesus came to earth to save us from the wages of sin by abolishing death. We need to show everyone the glory of surrendering to the love of Jesus, and the reward of eternal life in heaven with our Father. But, Lord, we can only do that if we learn to love as Jesus loved. By your grace, Father, you lovingly remake us in Jesus’ image on our journey to sanctification. Lord, show us how to accept your grace and be willing to do our part. Open our eyes to see that we are all sinners struggling under the weight of our sin. Show us we are not different from other sinners; we only have different sins. God, remind us that we cry out for compassion and grace from Jesus to forgive us, and we should give the same forgiveness to all sinners. God, awaken our hearts with compassion for all who are also struggling against sin. Help us, Lord, to keep our minds and hearts clear that we are to love all sinners as Jesus loves us. Father, help us to remember that we are not here to compete or judge each other’s sins but to live as a loving family and gracefully support everyone in their Christian walk. Help us, Father, to better accept each other, to stop judging each other’s sins, and to begin helping one another let go of all sins. That can only be done if we resist comparing our sins to convince ourselves that our sins are less egregious. Lord, help us to remember that sin is a tool of our mutual enemy. He uses it to set us against one another and to shatter our love. God, help us to identify his tricks and stand together to defeat him. Father, please protect, guide, and help us to understand that all sin is corrosive, and the best antidote is to love one another despite our sins, joining together to defeat all sin. Lord, with honor for your sovereignty and in awe of your power, we ask for your love, grace, and guidance in this, as in everything we do. We pray this prayer in the holy name of your Son and our savior, Jesus. Amen.