Judging and Loving
"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." - Mother Teresa
There have been a lot of conversations going on lately about controversial topics in the LDS church. I have seen a lot of comments flying around, many of the "you must not really have faith in God/be a follower of Christ/be a worthy member of the church if you believe that" variety. There's a good chance we've all thought things like this at some point. I know I'm guilty of it. The problem is, if we are busy trying to determine whether we are more "worthy" than other people, we are too busy to love them as Christ loves them.
Christ sacrificed everything for every single one of us, "worthy" or not. And really, none of us are actually deserving of that level of love and sacrifice from such a perfect, powerful being. Yet he suffered and died for all of us, even those he knew would fight him at every step, hurt him, and hurt those he loves. He chose to experience their pains and sorrows himself. He sought to understand them, suffer the consequences of their actions, and die for them so that they could still have the option to be redeemed. Christ loves, accepts, and invites all of us to come unto him. He is not harsh in his treatment of us. He holds his hand out to us constantly, no matter what we have done, and gently calls to us to come and accept the love and help he has to offer.
We are told to have Christlike love for all men. Christ himself told us that the second greatest commandment, after loving God, is to "love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matthew 22:35-40). Judging others usually involves putting them beneath ourselves - we are determining how we are better than they are, and are therefore not loving them as we love ourselves.
I wonder how often we stop to realize that, when we use our time to judge, rather than love, someone else, we are actually breaking the second greatest commandment. And in doing so, we may technically be committing a 'worse' sin than those we are condemning.
Then again, what if we feel that the other individual is still committing a worse sin than anything we have ever done? Where exactly has Christ informed us that passing judgment, looking down on, or dismissing those "less righteous" than ourselves is an appropriate thing to do?
In John 15:12, he tells us, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you" (emphasis added).
I challenge all of us, myself included, to remember the love Christ has for us. To remember that he chose to suffer and die for all of us, even knowing we wouldn't all appreciate it. Even knowing the horrible things people do to each other. Even knowing the terrible things people had done and would do to him. He chose to understand us, to sacrifice for us, to serve us, and to die for each of us anyway. He did those things for all of us. Because he loves all of us.
Let us all please stop for a moment, the next time someone says or does something we disagree with, something that hurts us, something we dislike. Stop and think about what Christ has done to show his love for you, and how grateful you are for a love like that. Remember that we have been commanded to love others as he loves us.
Remember that, at the very least, we should love others as we want to be loved.
As for me, I'd really like to be loved the way Christ loves me.
There have been a lot of conversations going on lately about controversial topics in the LDS church. I have seen a lot of comments flying around, many of the "you must not really have faith in God/be a follower of Christ/be a worthy member of the church if you believe that" variety. There's a good chance we've all thought things like this at some point. I know I'm guilty of it. The problem is, if we are busy trying to determine whether we are more "worthy" than other people, we are too busy to love them as Christ loves them.
Christ sacrificed everything for every single one of us, "worthy" or not. And really, none of us are actually deserving of that level of love and sacrifice from such a perfect, powerful being. Yet he suffered and died for all of us, even those he knew would fight him at every step, hurt him, and hurt those he loves. He chose to experience their pains and sorrows himself. He sought to understand them, suffer the consequences of their actions, and die for them so that they could still have the option to be redeemed. Christ loves, accepts, and invites all of us to come unto him. He is not harsh in his treatment of us. He holds his hand out to us constantly, no matter what we have done, and gently calls to us to come and accept the love and help he has to offer.
We are told to have Christlike love for all men. Christ himself told us that the second greatest commandment, after loving God, is to "love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matthew 22:35-40). Judging others usually involves putting them beneath ourselves - we are determining how we are better than they are, and are therefore not loving them as we love ourselves.
I wonder how often we stop to realize that, when we use our time to judge, rather than love, someone else, we are actually breaking the second greatest commandment. And in doing so, we may technically be committing a 'worse' sin than those we are condemning.
Then again, what if we feel that the other individual is still committing a worse sin than anything we have ever done? Where exactly has Christ informed us that passing judgment, looking down on, or dismissing those "less righteous" than ourselves is an appropriate thing to do?
In John 15:12, he tells us, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you" (emphasis added).
I challenge all of us, myself included, to remember the love Christ has for us. To remember that he chose to suffer and die for all of us, even knowing we wouldn't all appreciate it. Even knowing the horrible things people do to each other. Even knowing the terrible things people had done and would do to him. He chose to understand us, to sacrifice for us, to serve us, and to die for each of us anyway. He did those things for all of us. Because he loves all of us.
Let us all please stop for a moment, the next time someone says or does something we disagree with, something that hurts us, something we dislike. Stop and think about what Christ has done to show his love for you, and how grateful you are for a love like that. Remember that we have been commanded to love others as he loves us.
Remember that, at the very least, we should love others as we want to be loved.
As for me, I'd really like to be loved the way Christ loves me.
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