Pages 698-700 … the Whole Bible
Lucy: Scaughdt, it is sad that you can only use only a few verses of the Word of God to to try and make a point. If you use all of them they fall into context with one another and tell us that we are called to make righteous judgements of others …
“Jesus said: ‘Judge not, that you be not judged’ (Matthew 7:1). Does this mean we are never to judge? Certainly not, for Jesus also said: ‘Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment’ (John 7:24) … This is reminiscent of Leviticus 19:15, ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. But in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.’ … We may not reserve judgment when faced with clear manifestations of evil. Jesus himself reprimanded the church at Thyatira: ‘Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and beguile my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.’ (Revelation 2:20) …
What if false teachings on divorce and remarriage leads God’s people to commit sexual immorality? Will God hold us guiltless if we allow such to be taught, and if we fellowship people Jesus says are committing adultery? (Matthew 5:31-32; Matthew19:9; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18) … Jesus is very clear on sin. ‘Judge not, that you be not judged’ is often the wailing cry of false teachers and hardened sinners who misapply the verse to ward off censure for their evil deeds. Do not be intimidated by such people, for Jesus has commanded us to judge with righteous judgment (John 7:24).”
Scaughdt: My dearest Lucy, once again you have blatantly misrepresented the Way of Christ as found in the Gospels, and so once again I will attempt to gently awaken you to that most glorious of Ways …
I have already repeatedly explained the very clear (& quite simple) difference between the “judgment” that Jesus denounces in Matthew 7:1-5 (e.g. how you are condemning homosexuals for who they ARE &/or for behaviors that they might be engaging that are not harmful to others) and the “righteous judgment” he encourages in John 7:24 (e.g. how Vanessa & I are attempting to stand between those very same bigoted denigrations and your intended victims thereof) …
Lucy, we would save so much time in this thread if you would simply READ WHAT I SHARE WITH YOU, and yet it looks like you will not be doing so – and I happen to have a lot of time – and the issues that this thread addresses (the Way of Jesus Christ, bigotry, religious piousness, arrogance, hypocrisy, Compassion & Humility – just to name a few) are EXREMELY IMPORTANT and indeed very dear to me, so it is actually an honor & a privilege for me to explain to you once again how you are turning the Wisdom of Jesus Christ on its head and preaching the exact opposite if what he taught!
As such, please read the following points slowly and carefully, so that you might finally understand this very important Truth … Thanks!
*According to Jesus himself, to condemn the sins of others while sinning ourselves is the sin of arrogance & the sin of callousness & the sin of hypocrisy all rolled into one. Over & over & over again Jesus tells us in the Gospels to keep our mouths shut and our Hearts open when dealing with the perceived faults of our neighbors … Hear the Word of God:
“Let [she] who is without sin cast the first stone … Do not judge, so that you may not be judged … Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own? … You hypocrite, take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck of sawdust from your brother’s eye … You hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup [of others], but inside are full of greed and self-indulgence … First clean the inside of your own cup, so that the outside might also become truly clean … Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this young child is the greatest in the Kingdom” ~ Jesus Christ (John 8:7 + Matthew 7:1-2 + Luke 6:41 + Matthew 23:25-26 + Matthew18:3-4)
*Even according to the Old Testament (Jeremiah 31:33-34), NONE OF US are to aggressively preach our particular religious beliefs or our particular Biblical interpretations to others – that those mattes are between each person and God alone. In addition, as if there need be any doubt, the New Testament directly reaffirms this Wisdom in Hebrews 8:8-13.
“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall ALL know me, from the least of them to the greatest … For I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more” ~ Jeremiah 31:33-34 (and Hebrews 8:8-13)
*This means that if you truly are a believer in “the whole Bible”, Lucy – and if you truly are a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ therein, then you will STOP DENIGRATING HOMOSEXUALS and start cleaning your own cup instead!!!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees; you hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup [of others], but inside are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of your own cup, so that the outside might also become truly clean.” ~ Jesus Christ (Matthew 23:25-26)
P.S. How odd it is that you claim that I only use “a few verses of the Word of God” when I have used literally thousands of verses in this thread alone and cited literally hundreds of them in my last set of comments alone!
P.P.S. How odd as well that you claim that I am the one taking the entire Bible out of context when it clearly YOU who are doing so! Otherwise, how do you explain Hebrews 8:8-13? And how do you reconcile your open condemnation of homosexuals with Matthew 5:40-48? And how do you reconcile your belief in their eternal damnation with John 5:22 + John 8:15 + John 12:47 + 1 John 4:18? And how do you reconcile openly criticizing homosexuality (which again, according to the Bible, is NOT A SIN!) with Matthew 7:1-5 or Matthew 18:3-4 or Matthew 23:25-26 or John 8:7? … Simply put, Lucy, you can’t, because even though you do look at “the whole Bible”, you do so by looking at each verse or collection of verses in isolation – which conveniently allows you to ignore the sins that you & yours are committing while publicly damning those that make you uncomfortable (a classic characteristic of bigotry), and which conveniently (and incorrectly) allows you to claim to be followers of Jesus Christ while blatantly ignoring most of his teachings (in favor of the far less enlightened and far less Loving teachings of the Old Testament, of Paul, and of the book of Revelation).
Of course, you do so to your own detriment – keeping yourself locked out of Jesus’ truly brilliant Kingdom of Heaven (see Luke 17:20-21 + Matthew 18:3-4) and you do so to the detriment of humanity as well (as Christ cannot ever fully return until the world is exposed not to your warped beliefs about the Gospel, but rather to Jesus’ Gospel of LOVE unconditional instead! – see Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 16:15-16 & Luke 24:44-49)!
So PLEASE, my dear Friend – for the Love of God (literally) – repent! Hold your callous & judgmental tongue when it comes to homosexuality, open your Heart to your still-persecuted homosexual brothers & sisters instead, and return to The Way of Christ thereby.
Amen – Let it be so!
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