Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church

[lalouve]

I keep finding discussions where it's argued that pointing out anyone's sinful living is a favour done to them, a sign of true Christian love. Maybe it is. It also misses the point, and, incidentally, annoys the recipient. And I think it's not what we need.

I have heard it said, inside the various churches I have dropped by throughout the years,

Comments

[sollersuk]

I seem to recall a passage in the Gospels on the subject of pointing out other people's sins, to the effect that one should deal with the whacking great joist in one's own eye before drawing attention to the grain of sawdust in someone else's.

And a lot of these sin-orientated churches semm to me to be a lot more about fear than about love.

[lalouve]

Unfortunately, I think the emphasis on sin and fear mirrors our relationship to God - we expect him to be concerned with sin and repentance all the time, to the exclusion of everything else. So we think we save others by being insistent about the sawdust, and how they should be ashamed of it, rather than indicating that we have a wonderful eye rinse they might want to try.

[sollersuk]

Well, some people's relationship to God. Mine takes off from "my daughter the theologian"'s. I don't know where she found it, but this is her and my mainstay:

Justice is getting what you deserve.
Mercy is not getting what you deserve.
Grace is getting what you don't deserve.

And what we get from God is grace.