Love or Judgment?

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with COMPASSION, KINDNESS, HUMILITY, GENTLENESS and PATIENCE. Bear with each other and FORGIVE whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the LORD forgave you. And over all these virtues put on LOVE, which binds them all together in perfect unity." - Colossians 3:12-14

I honestly never gave the book of Colossians much attention. But this semester I have been reading through the New Testament and I have learned so much. I've read scriptures that had gone unnoticed by myself that have ended up impacting me

heavily. These verses here have done that again.

As chosen people, God's people, His children we are called to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient. But above all LOVE ties it all together. I see so often in the news and life that we as believers do not show these characteristics much. There are those ministries and believers that do, I'm not categorizing all of us. But believers rarely make headlines by showing love.

You do not see headlines often about "Local church gives back to community" we tend to see "Local church pickets gay rally" with signs that say, "My God hates Gays!" I would love to go up to that person and ask them where in the Word it says that. As far as I know GOD'S Word says that God loves and died for EVERYONE. We tend to forget that WE ALL are sinners, and are sinful. 

Matthew 7:1 says, "Do not judge or you too will be judged."

John 12:47, Jesus himself says, "For I did not come to JUDGE the world, but SAVE it."

James 4:12 says, "There is only ONE lawgiver, and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But YOU - Who are you to judge your neighbor?" 

Wouldn't it be amazing if a church made headlines by showing the attributes of God, the same attributes that Christ himself has called us to have? I think we all need a heavy dose of a reality check and be reminded that no sin is greater than the other. It is not our job as believers and God's people to judge or ridicule. We are sinners as well, but Christ died to save us from our sins. Christ has called us to go into the world and share the LOVE of Christ. Christ is judge, not us. We need to be believers who show compassion, humility, love, and gentleness. Not judgment, ridicule and condemnation. What kind of believer do you want to be?