Jesus was sinless and could have condemned the world, He could have thrown the first stone yet He chose to love the sinner and pardon the sin.And many people use this to profess their belief that if you accept Jesus as the son of God or God Himself, that salvation is yours. Many in fact use this belief to bully others into believing in Christ.But what follows this scripture in John 3:17 is what amazes and inspires me.For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.So while many people are preoccupied with condemning others to Hell, Christ was concerned with guiding His flock on the basis of the two greatest commandments, scriptures records this passage in Matthew 22:36-40:
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
So the foundation of the Gospel and all the prophets and commandments hinge on these two commandments to love God and all His children. How can one condemn another to Hell and fufill those commandments?
If Jesus came to us to save us rather than condemn us and we are taught to follow Christs example then logic follows that we ought not condemn one another but love one another as Christ loves us as He commanded in John 13:34-35.
We will be held to account for all we say and do. This includes how we treat each other online and in person as well as over the phone.
Asking wwjd is one thing but asking if your words or actions are loving is also effective.
Truly loving someone cannot be done if we condemn them at the same time. It's not that everyone is sinless and does no harm, it's that they will be held to account for all their words and deeds by Christ Himself so let's trust Jesus to do His job while we do ours which as His disciples is to love one another as He loves us.
