In yesterday's blog entry, I said that the Christian cannot impose his/her morality upon those who are not Christian. Instead, Christians do have an obligation to one another to uphold what God lays out as guides for living. The disclaimer to this is that, as Paul says in Romans 7, we're constantly fighting the sin that lives in us. This keeps us from truly being able to live a life according to God's standards.
Yet, it is easy for us to say something like, "Well, I'm not supposed to judge another person, even or especially a fellow Christian." True, we are not called to judge them, since that would be to place ourselves in a position of authority over them, which we do not have. But we are to call to attention those areas where God has an explicit word, and which tears down the bonds of Christian love and fellowship. This is not us judging the other, but rather, speaking God's Word and letting God do the judging.
Now, different Christians interpret different criteria that their fellow Christians need to uphold. I truly have no problem with this, though often we can enforce morality upon one another that is merely a good idea, and not technically Scripture based. In the end, when Christians uphold some form of "Christian morality" upon one another, they are always to be led by what God's Word says.
The final note on this involves the manner in which this is approached. We are never to approach one another as though the one who needs the correction is inferior to the one doing the correcting. Instead, love, gentleness, and compassion are to be key attitudes when it comes to helping a fellow Christian in a matter of morality in which they struggle. Yes, this does sometimes involve being fairly strict (i.e. 1 Corinthians 5), but in all issues of morality or behavior, the desired end is reconciliation and restoration, not the feeding of one's ego.
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