The Bible, both Old and New Testaments has a lot of information about judgment. In fact, there are books dedicated to the Law, with instructions on how to handle various crimes. When Jesus came, He didn’t come to destroy the Law but to show us first that none of us can obey it full time and what the meaning of the Law was.
Hate Sin, not Sinners: There are a lot of people I know, some of them friends, who do not always follow Christian principles. For some of them it’s because they don’t happen to be Christians. I don’t hate them. If you took a look at who Jesus spent most of His time with it would not be those who followed the Law. He spent time with ordinary people and people who didn’t always follow the Law.
Judgment: There was a case brought before Jesus. A woman was caught violating the Law. The punishment, according to these laws, was to be stoned to death. I can imagine those who were trying to trap Jesus waiting with baited breath. Finally, they had Him.
Not so fast. Jesus’ verdict was that he who was without sin should cast the first stone. None of us are without sin, just as none of those who wanted to stone the woman to death were not. Only Jesus was without sin and He did not condemn her. He was the only one who could have tossed a rock.
Who am I? I’ve thought about this a lot. This story is something we all need to study. Who am I to judge another? I’m not perfect. I still sin, even though I am a Christian. Before I can possibly judge someone I have to be perfect. That’s not going to happen until I am made new by God.
Acting on our Orders: The most important thing we need to do as Christians is to act on our orders. Jesus meant it when He said His yoke was easy and His burden was light. We don’t have hundreds of laws to obey; we have two. The first is to love God with all of our hearts, minds and souls. The second is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
This applies to the hatred issue. It isn’t our place to hate or to judge others. It *usually isn’t even our place to tell them what they did “wrong.” That’s between them and God. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard enough time trying to follow Jesus’ two laws. I don’t have time or energy to start on someone else’s even if I had that right. So, when it comes to people who don’t believe as I do or who do things I don’t approve of, it’s none of my business. You worship and act as you see fit and so will I. That’s what we’re supposed to do.
*Crimes such as murder and so forth will need addressed by humans to protect others.
