{"id":457,"date":"2017-07-21T13:31:14","date_gmt":"2017-07-21T19:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/settledinthetruth.com\/settledinthetruth\/?p=457"},"modified":"2020-08-05T09:16:01","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T15:16:01","slug":"jesus-did-not-come-to-condemn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/settledinthetruth.com\/identity\/jesus-did-not-come-to-condemn\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Did Not Come To Condemn"},"content":{"rendered":"

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”<\/em><\/span>
\n – John 3:17<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"This post may draw controversy but our hope is that it will shed light on an issue facing Christians continually. \u00a0Every day believers in Christ are surrounded by the practices of sin and many feel compelled to stand up and say something. \u00a0They feel drawn to announce that sins are against God’s will and must be stopped, and that sinners must forsake their practices and turn to God in order to be freed from their sins. \u00a0They parade, and protest, and shout out, and point fingers, and wave bibles.<\/p>\n

The difficulty with that response is that unbelievers have no desire to approach God because He – in their eyes – is too condemning. He is not shared as Someone they could easily turn to for salvation. And that begs the real question, how did Jesus approach the issues of sin when He waked this earth as a man?<\/p>\n

“When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'”<\/span><\/em>
\n – Mark 2:16-17<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus was in no way permissive because He many times admonished others to “go and sin no more<\/em>“<\/span>, but He chose to reach out to people with the truth about sin – not about sins<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. \u00a0His concern was showing the love of the Father, and the prison of sin, and the freedom of new life. \u00a0He sat with sinners and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and they were drawn to listen and to reconsider their lives. \u00a0He did not sit with them and berate them for being gay, or adulterers, or thieves, or liars. \u00a0Actually, the only ones He did chastise were those who were supposed to know better. \u00a0The “good” religious leaders.<\/p>\n

So what was Jesus showing us? \u00a0That He came to save – not to condemn. \u00a0And how does that translate to us? \u00a0Quite simply, attending rallies and protests against any specific sin is really a waste of time and not something we can claim to be doing in the Spirit of God. \u00a0The ruler of this world is judged, so trying to just fix the ways of this world is contrary to God’s will. \u00a0And that is all we’re doing when we protest the actions of others in the manner of this world. \u00a0We are only trying to make our existence better instead of showing others the Way to freedom.<\/p>\n

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–comes not from the Father but from the world.”<\/span><\/em>
\n – 1 John 2:15-16<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Consider these two statements:<\/p>\n