Friday, March 18, 2005
A GREAT Distinction
I may have just read one of the most insightful distinctions I have come across in a long time.
Just to make sure we are all on the same page here -- "You are going to hell for that," is judgement. "Homosexual behavior is sinful," is simply intolerant.
The appeal to Matthew 7:1 when combined with the "already forgiven" stuff has done more to denude the church of any sense of morality than anything I can think of.
McCrory concludes his series with these words:
Before the days of quartz watches and batteries, most clocks had a spring in them. The key to making the clock run properly was to keep the right amount of tension on the spring. If one wound the clock to tight (actually becoming judgmental) the clock would break. If you let the tension on the clock relax altogether (becoming completely tolerant) the watch would run slow or not at all.
Tension is a part of our Christian life. We need to learn to relish it and live in it. In this case we need to learn to proper levels of tolerance and avoid becoming judgemental.
Most of the conversations I have encountered where Matt 7:1 comes up are conversations where the issue is toleration and not judgment. These are different issues. Judgment is a God thing, toleration isn't.This comes from the concluding part of a four part series on "Judgement and Toleration" from Old Testament for the Church. This and this and this are the first three parts. (HT: Transforming Sermons)
Just to make sure we are all on the same page here -- "You are going to hell for that," is judgement. "Homosexual behavior is sinful," is simply intolerant.
The appeal to Matthew 7:1 when combined with the "already forgiven" stuff has done more to denude the church of any sense of morality than anything I can think of.
McCrory concludes his series with these words:
Here?s the real bone stuck in the jaw: How do you and I live in a world of sinful human beings under a heavenly judge with an earthly presence, who has judged us in Jesus Christ without making ourselves the judge? How do we hold each other accountable to righteous behavior and call sin, sin and evil, evil without assuming the role of God? This is the real question for disciples.That is a great question, and an exciting tension to live in. Which is the point I really want to make -- it is a tension that we live in. We can't relieve it, either by actually becoming judgmental or by becoming tolerant. If we relieve it, we will miss the mark.
Before the days of quartz watches and batteries, most clocks had a spring in them. The key to making the clock run properly was to keep the right amount of tension on the spring. If one wound the clock to tight (actually becoming judgmental) the clock would break. If you let the tension on the clock relax altogether (becoming completely tolerant) the watch would run slow or not at all.
Tension is a part of our Christian life. We need to learn to relish it and live in it. In this case we need to learn to proper levels of tolerance and avoid becoming judgemental.
