The Law of Christ

What happens to other sisters and brothers in faith, can happen to you as well! The offences, idleness, thoughtlessness and foolishness of other believing people should not be cause for you to condemn or to label these people overhastyly. Often we don`t even notice what really happend and what really is behind the incident. Are you still able of pityfulness and gentleness or do you rather beat the other person verbally? Is it you simply have no understanding for some things – christian or not – are you going to be weak when others are, or does it all leave you rather cold (2.Corinthians : 11,29)? Let us remember how Jesus treated weak, sinful and compunctious people. He went there for a meal and ''had to'' stop by (Luke 15,2). So it happend at the house of Zachäus from Jericho, a tollkeeper, who was loved in public as much as a rash (Luke 19,1-10). A lot of salvation came to is house after he opened it for Jesus. How much blessing can God give to a fallen, a distressed or a stumbled person, if we meet this person with love, understanding and help instead of meeting the same person with contempt and accusation? We should ask ourselves how many of the people that accused Zachäus, would have taken on his job to get rich? Sometimes it`s even us, who put unnecessary pressure on other christians and still are the first ones to complain if things dont`t work out as well as ecxpacted.
You don`t even have to be a pharisee to make life difficult for believers (Luke11,46). But to help someone who is hit by offences, (with gentleness and sacred maturity) is for some people quite difficult because they can`t picture themselves in such a situation. It is not, that we should fall silent about everything and everybody, but we are called upon to proclaim and communicate grace and not justice. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (Colossians 3:12-13)
Have you got ''sincere mercy, ''friendliness', ''humbleness'', ''gentleness und ''patience'? Before you criticise other christians, you should ask yourself, if you are not not just as endangered as the other person and are only stood up because of god`s mercy,? And unfortunately there are religious people who shake their heads so long over a soup until they find the hair in it! Without mercy not one of us would pass god`s justice for only one moment. Even if we realize something others do wrong, we should check our own eyes first (Matthew 7: 3-5). Forgiveness happens through love. Who is living to see this als a fallen or faulty person, has a special motivation to do better in further life and to correct his mistakes. Even if criticism is legitimate, we are not supposed to put ourselves above others. Pauline writes to the Corinthians: “So let him who seems to himself to be safe go in fear of a fall.“(1 Corinthians 10:12 )

Jörg Bauer