Not condemn, but save 

NO ONE likes hearing a list of everything they are doing wrong!

As a teacher, “teacher evaluations” where an admin would just tell me everything I could have done to make my lesson better were the worst.

And in our personal lives, I’m pretty certain none of us love getting laundry lists of what we are doing wrong.

But on the other hand…

We each know we aren’t perfect.

We know we have blind spots to certain weaknesses, we know we mess up constantly, we know we aren’t living up to our full potential.

So if we don’t like hearing everything we are doing wrong, but we also are fully aware we aren’t doing everything right, how do we still grow?

“God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:17)

Jesus isn’t one to condemn.

He is one to love and save.

Jesus isn’t making lists of everything we are failing at.

(So maybe we shouldn’t either.)

But Jesus also knows how we can improve.

“God loves us as we are, but He also loves us too much to leave us this way.” -Brad Wilcox

Jesus invites us to follow Him.

He find us at the well, loves us, and invites us to believe and change.

He is there when we need help and healing, and invites us to exercise even greater faith in order to see the miracles unfold.

He sits with us and teaches us eternal truths that broaden our limited perspective.

He’s not here to condemn.

He’s here to love and save.

And while we take comfort in this, I think we can follow His example, too.

We aren’t here to condemn, whether it’s ourselves or others.

We are here to love. To love and invite and then love some more while constantly looking to the Savior.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black