John 3:17
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Reflection
Jesus gave himself in sacrificial love not so he could show us how bad we are and condemn us for our imperfection. No, Jesus wants no one to be condemned. Jesus shared his love with the world so that all would be saved. Jesus’ sacrificial love was to provide a way for us to enter the kingdom of God.
When we share love with others who do not yet know Jesus, it must be the same kind of love that Jesus has shown each of us. As we impart Jesus’ love to others it is not to condemn; it is to give that love so that they will be saved and know the kind of full and eternal life that Jesus has made available to each of us. We must help people come to grips with their sin and turn to Jesus’ love to be forgiven so that they can turn away from that sin, but we must never condemn people because of who they are or what they have done. We must follow the example of Jesus. He did not condemn us. He loved us.
That’s what we must do for others. We cannot condemn them. We must love them with the sacrificial and complete love of Jesus.
Today spend some time contemplating this question: How do we love others with the love of Jesus, and at the same time not accept sin but not condemning people for their sin? (If this puzzles you spend some time reading about the life of Jesus in the gospels and see how he was able to love, not accept sin and at the same time not condemn people.)
