Judging part 3

The Reason for the Process

Following God requires tons of patience. The whole time the point of this lesson Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:1-6 is, I think, how to approach those in sin. We know what the finished product is supposed to be, and that's repentance. We recognize the sin in our own lives, deal with it and then we're able to view people in sin the way God does. The whole purpose of this is to lead someone to Jesus and repentance.

So why do we have to go through this process? Verse six speaks to this. We can't throw pearls before pigs or holy things to dogs. This is pretty brutal imagery here, but it's true. The things that we're able to see as absolutely beautiful as Christians such as Christ's sacrifice on the cross are seen differently to those who don't know Him. In 1 Corinthians 1:18 Paul says that the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. We can't throw those who don't know Christ into the deep end of Christianity. We can't expect them to just come to us where we are. We have to be willing to wade over to them and teach them to swim.

The Apostles demonstrated this in their teachings. When Peter preached to Jews at Pentecost, he used the Old Testament scriptures to tell them about Jesus. He knew their background. The people had been learning the Old Testament their whole life. He knew they were close, they just needed to be shown by what they knew. But when Paul preached at Mars Hill, he knew that these people knew nothing about scripture, so he couldn't start there in teaching them about Christ. So Paul searched their culture for God's truth in their synagogues and poets to get them to Jesus.

This is why all you'll ever get at these stupid Christian protests are angry non-christians who want to trample those Christians. And who could blame them? Instead we need to be willing to approach these people with sight from God and be able to truly love them and come to them where they are to show them Christ.