And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 NASB)

Back on the 22 Mar 19, I shared the below publically on my Facebook page…

As a follower of Jesus, it is my aspiration to simultaneously accept everyone (including myself) as they are in love yet only approve of those things which anyone (including myself) does which are in accordance with Jesus’ character and written word in truth, I believe this is the balance which Jesus walked when He was on earth… 

I had a situation here in New Zealand which was playing out in mind as I shared that, and it seemed appropriate to put forward my position publically…

There is another situation over in Australia currently playing out which I feel to share this post in relation to…

Whilst accepting everyone (including myself) as they are in love, this does not mean that I accept them (or myself) based on their (or my) behaviour (whether it be good or bad)…

Jesus died for everyone, Jesus paid for everyone’s sins, all died in Jesus, everyone has their pardon fully written out with Jesus willing to act as their Advocate with the Father, waiting for them to sign it and say, “Yes, I want to receive Jesus as my substitute before God, I want Jesus to stand in my place before God and have His Perfect Life credited to me so that my sins can be forgiven and His Righteousness will be permanently and forever credited to me so that I do not need to face God’s Judgement for my sin”…

Anyone who believes they are a sinner (i.e. have fallen short of God’s Glory) and have not lived (in their heart, actions and character) as Jesus lived (in His heart, actions and character) while He was on earth, can accept Jesus’ offer to be their Substitute and give their lives to Jesus for Him to live through them…

He does all the work…

No eternal judgement…

Eternal Life instead…

That is an amazing offer from God, the most amazing offer any of us will ever get in our lifetimes…

So I accept everyone whether they are believers or unbelievers as those for whom Christ died and as those for whom Christ longs to be reconciled to Himself, I treat unbelievers as ‘pre-believers’ or ‘potential believers’, i.e. ‘potential brothers or sisters in the Lord’ and I treat believers as brothers and sisters in the Lord whom the Lord has told me to accept…

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED YOU FELL ON ME.” For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. (Romans 15:1-7 NASB)

But here’s the flipside…

God is God and what God says in His word, the scriptures, is the truth…

There is no wiggle room on that…

God doesn’t water down what He’s said or lower the bar on what He’s said the truth is to make people feel better about themselves…

None of us (period) can feel good about ourselves, we’re all sinners outside of Christ…

So God is the great leveller…

It’s not just some people who need to repent and give themselves to Christ, it’s all people, everywhere, in every nation and for all time…

None of us is any better than anyone else – this is what scripture tells us…

We are all sinners and none of us can save ourselves…

So to say that God singles anyone or any group out as being bad while siding with any other person or group as being good is just plain wrong…

God says that everyone outside of Christ is 100% bad – because even if you only sin once God views that as having committed every possible sin – there is no hope once any of us have committed even one sin – we are lost without Christ…

But on the other hand, you have this most amazing offer – to be credited with Jesus’ Righteousness and be accepted, loved and forgiven by God and placed into Jesus so that all that Jesus enjoys and will enjoy you too will enjoy for all eternity…

All that Jesus has, you too will have for all eternity…

That’s amazing and I’ve just got to shout, “Hallelujah!!!”… 🙂

Then on the flipside, scripture tells us that Love rejoices with the truth…

This is the approval side of my quote above…

To give approval is to agree that a particular action, in motive and deed, was an enactment of the truth – the character of Christ – in a particular situation…

Only those with the Spirit of God within them and living through them can complete such acts…

Thus the only approval I can give is to those (including myself) with the Spirit of God within them who (including myself) are yielded to the Holy Spirit in those areas and committing those acts under the control of the Holy Spirit…

The Fruits of the Holy Spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness and Self-Control (Galatians 5:22-23)…

The ‘fruits’ of those who either don’t know God or do know God but aren’t at that moment experiencing the Holy Spirit living through them are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these (Galatians 5:19-21a)…

If we were to drill into immorality, impurity and sensuality, from scripture we would find that all of us are guilty of these three sins in some way or another, whether we would categorize or identify ourselves as heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender…

God has a very clear and narrow path – His prescribed path – for our lives with respect to doing the opposite of immorality, impurity and sensuality – (unless we are gifted as a eunuch for the sake of the Kingdom in which case we have no sexual interaction with ourselves or anyone else at all, either on the inside in our hearts or physically out through our bodies) it consists of men marrying women, treating them as more important than ourselves, never forcing ourselves on our wives sexually, never abusing our wives sexually or in any other way, in laying down our lives for our wives, never being interested in or attracted to anyone other than our wives and giving only our wives our hearts and our attention in the deep matters of our hearts (those things that should be shared only between a husband and a wife), becoming one with our wives and with respect to our bodies, only experiencing sexual intimacy – which is a two-way free giving activity – with our wives…

Any heterosexual activity which doesn’t conform to the above is a sin in the eyes of God…

Even if that sin only occurs in the heart and not in action…

That’s how serious it is…

In terms of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender behaviour, all this is sin in the eyes of God…

None of this behaviour conforms to His prescribed path in scripture at all…

Those are the facts from scripture…

Now having said that, the Lord protects us all by saying that none of us has any right to judge or condemn or look down on anyone else…

Why?  Because we’re all just as guilty as each other…

There is only One Lawgiver and Judge the One who is able to Save and Destroy…

In dying for our sins Jesus earnt the right to have all Judgement entrusted to Him by the Father…

He is the Only Judge…

So is it right for ‘christians’ to look down on ‘non-christians’?  No, it is not…

Is it right for ‘christians’ to condemn ‘non-christians’?  No, it is not…

Is it right for ‘christians’ to condemn ‘Christians’?  No, it is not…

In fact, in the area of morality is anyone better than anyone else?  No, they are not…

Even for those who scripture tells us have been released from their sins, even these ones aren’t to think they stand but to take heed lest they fall…

Even for those who know God and do fall, those who haven’t fallen are to restore such ones in a spirit of meekness (submission to the Lord) watching themselves lest they also are tempted…

Scripture paints a pretty bleak picture of any believer who gets forgiven and freed by the Lord and then goes out and starts trying to lord it over or look down on or condemn those who are yet to be forgiven and freed by the Lord…

Scripture says that the Lord allows that one to be chained up by the tormentors and I believe to be reacquainted with their past bondage to sin until they realise that they must forgive others for their sins in the same way as the Lord has forgiven them…

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32 NASB)

If we refuse to forgive others then practically the Lord will let us wallow in our past sins until we do…

Scripture paints a pretty bleak picture for anyone who wants to set themselves up as being better than anyone else, eh?

Scripture is the great equalizer…

We are all equally guilty…

None of us has a leg to stand on…

We are all offered God’s mercy (not getting what we deserve) and grace (getting what we don’t deserve) and our eternity is in our hands, in what we do with that offer…

If we gratefully accept that offer and trust God through scripture that Jesus has paid the price and risen again from death and ascended into heaven then we’re ‘all good’ (Eternity in the Presence of the Love of God which starts when we believe in Jesus)…

If on the other hand, we choose to try and establish our own righteousness before God (and remain steadfast in that pursuit until death), we will spend eternity in the Presence of His Wrath in the lake of fire and brimstone…

The things which scripture tell us are God’s will for us are the things which the Holy Spirit will do through us…

The Holy Spirit won’t do anything through us other than the things which God’s word in scripture tells us He will…

The Holy Spirit won’t sin through us, He can’t – He’s the Holy Spirit…

The only way we as believers can know God is by letting the Holy Spirit live through us…

As we do this we start to see the Miracle which God has created in Christ and the Church – who is Christ’s Bride – and we start to see why male and female fulfilling their unique roles within the covenant of marriage is so important to God…

It’s His Blueprint, His Plan, His Purpose, to reveal Himself in all His Fullness, to us… 🙂

But, to those who believe in Christ, there is no condemnation as we move from ‘glory to glory’ in Him and are transformed in an ever-increasing measure (strength to strength and grace upon grace) into His Image…