The Law in 90 Days: Deuteronomy 31-32
RADICAL Love
Jude 23; Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate
their lives.
There is clearly a fine line between accepting the person while renouncing the sin, and accepting
the person along with their sin. We are to be cautious while showing mercy. Though mercy is a
mark of a believer, it is not to be given at the cost of holiness.
Josh McDowell makes an interesting observation regarding a shift of meaning that has occurred on
certain words embraced by today’s youth versus the youth of the previous generation. One such
word is tolerance. In the adult generation, he says, tolerance means “accepting others without
agreeing with or sharing their beliefs or lifestyle choices.” Today’s youth, however, define the word
as “accepting that each individual’s beliefs, values, lifestyles, and truth claims are equal.” (The Last
Christian Generation, p 22)
This new meaning of the term is dangerous, creating a slippery slope of relativism, where “what’s
true for you is good for you, and what’s true for me is good for me.” If we lose caution while with
believers who are blatantly living in sin, we may quickly accept this belief of our culture. Our society
packages the person with the behaviour: if you dislike their action you dislike them. But the Bible
tells us to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. This doesn’t mean that the persecuted
Christian shouts “Woohoo! Give me more!” in the face of torture! Neither does the one dealing with
sexual abuse give her abuser a big kiss on the cheek. We learn to love and forgive within safe
boundaries.
We are to lavish love on one another, but we mustn’t stand silently before unholiness, showing no
regard for it. If we are grounded in Christ, we will not be afraid to hold fast to our opinions that are
rooted in Biblical truth.
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. How have you agreed with, or even encouraged a friend or family member’s sin by your
attitude or words?
2. Is there someone you are disappointed in because of the lifestyle choices they are making?
Ask God how you can love the person without endorsing and condoning the sin.
3. Ask God to show you any sin that’s contaminating your life. Confess.
