Love the person; Hate the sin

Brothers and sisters, I haven’t written in a while, forgive me. Things have been a bit hectic lately. Today I have something sitting very heavy on my heart. I pray this reaches whoever it needs to.

            This world we live in is full of darkness and it shows through how we treat one another. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, this world has a heart problem!  It breaks my heart to see that when someone is in trouble, we are often too quick to judge them or simply say we don’t have the time or patience to deal with them or their problems. Sometimes God puts us in people’s lives for a reason, to be an example, to learn a lesson, or simply just to show them love. I’ve lived in my home for a little over 5 years and my neighbors are all nice in their own ways. They pretty much stay to themselves, and we all just kind of just coexist. I have one neighbor in particular that is visibly troubled. You can tell he hasn’t had the best life and maybe has made some not so good choices along the way. He’s not a bad person but everyone seems to treat him as such. I understand being cautious around someone you may not know all that well, but that’s no reason to treat someone like they’re not a human.

            He never bothers anyone and often looks out for others; I’ve learned that about him while living here. I’m an observer, I watch how people interact with others and I notice things that most people wouldn’t. I try my best to get along with everyone, so I’ve had small conversations here and there with all my neighbors. This one recently had an episode. I’ll spare the details, but when someone is in need and tries to reach out for help, it breaks my heart that instead of helping them, people rather judge harshly and just sit and watch. I understand that in moments like this where it could be potentially dangerous or we might not know the person well, people often think, I don’t want to be involved in that. My question to you is, what if it were you? What if it were you that needed help so desperately that you didn’t know what to do, how to feel, or how to act? You would want someone in your corner, someone to calm the situation, someone to simply just help. John 15:12 says “This is my commandment, that you love you one another as I have loved you.”  Jesus didn’t say pick and choose who you care for. Jesus didn’t say love one another only if they live the same way you do. He said love one another as I have loved you. 

            The Golden Rule is something we were all taught as children, did we know it’s also biblical; “Do to others as you would have them do to you” Luke 6:31. We as the body of Christ, as children of God, as human’s on this earth shouldn’t be so quick to judge others, or treat them poorly just because they don’t do things the way we think they should. None of us are perfect. We need to remember that. This culture has taught us that if someone doesn’t do anything for us why should we do anything for them, or if they did us wrong, screw them. Eye for an eye, right? We can’t live like this! God says to love one another. God says to be generous. God says to be kind no matter what they’ve done. God says to PRAY FOR THEM! We, as a whole, need more love, more prayer, and less judgment. Matthew 7:1 “Judge not, or you too will be judged”. In a world full of darkness; focus on being the light, hate the sin, but love the sinner.