We have an incredible ability to take what God intends for our good and twist it so that it becomes bad. God gives us marriage as a gift and says that we should save the extra gift of sex for marriage. What do we do? We twist what sex is and say that God is being a spoil-sport, telling us to wait until we are married. We take Gods gift of the Bible and the exciting message that it is and make it as boring and mundane as possible. We take the guidance that God gives us in the Bible and use it to beat people over the head with saying that they are sinners, conveniently forgetting that God did not make us the judge. That’s what Paul is on about here, these guys have taken Gods instruction book, otherwise know as the Bible, and created so many rules around it that no one could possibly live up to them. So what happens? People feel guilty when they fail and eventually stop trying. That’s not what God wants; God wants us to understand that he loves us so much he sent Jesus to die for us. When we look at people at school or college who are doing things that we know isn’t what God wants for them, what do we do? Do we say things like you should do that; you will go to hell if you do that? Or do we pray for that they might just receive a little of Gods love today? Judging isn’t down to us, that is done by someone else later. Our job is to stretch out a helping hand and help people do the right thing next time. So when you next see that boy or girl that you judged in the past, maybe you can be the answer to you own prayer and stretch out the hand of friendship, not the wagging finger of Judgment.
