Why Sin Can't Be Privatized

If On Behalf of a Healthy Community
We Should Avoid Being 
Judgmental About One Another’s Sin

Then Equally,

On Behalf of a Healthy of Community
We Should Never Avoid Those
Who Can Lovingly (Christ-Like)
Make Us Aware of Our Own Personal Sin

The Fruit of the Spirit and the Incarnation of Christ In Our Lives

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Thoughts:

The Fruits Of The Spirit
Are Not Only Evidence
Of The Indwelling Presence Of Christ
In Our Lives,
But The Very Power
By Which We Represent Christ and
From Which The World Feeds On Christ…
No Fruit… No Food...
No Fruit... No Representation.

The Fruit of the Spirit is What Enables The Believer To Be The Incarnation of Christ In The World

Principles Regarding The Fruit of the Spirit In The Life of Believers:

Principle #1
Acquiring The Fruit Of The Spirit Distinguishes The Believer From The Rest Of The World - Causing Curiosity and Interest On Their Part

Principle #2
Acquiring The Fruit Of The Spirit Will Empower and Motivate Us To Engage and Change The World For Christ

Principle #3
Acquiring The Fruit Of The Spirit Enables Us The Believer To Have Fulfillment and Satisfaction (Shalom) By Taking On The Image And Characteristics of Christ

Heresies

Most heresies 

are well intended compromises 

related to how we think

we should understand 

the nature of God

If Love Is A Truth, Then Truth Must Be Loved

If We Are Compelled To Believe That All LOVE is a TRUTH 
For Everyone… 
At All Times…
In All Places…
With All of Its Powerful and Wide Ranging Possibilities and Inconveniences

Then In A Corresponding Manner

We Must Be Complelled To Believe That All TRUTH Must Be LOVED…
By Everyone…
At All Times…
In All Places…
With All of Its Powerful and Wide Ranging Possibilities and Inconveniences

To Diminish The One is to Minimize The Other

Where We Live In Scripture

In "Modernity" (1700's - 1980's) we lived in the Epistles - primarily the Book of Romans.

In "Post-Modernity" (1980's - Present) we lived in the Gospels - Primarily The Sermon on the Mount.

To be Timelessly Orthodox In Our Christian Faith...

We Need To Live In BOTH...

Relational Integrity

Relational Integrity:

When Christians commit themselves to modeling RELATIONAL LOVE exclusively 
But marginalize the whole of BIBLICAL TRUTH, by ignoring, or failing to teach it;

Then those Loving Relationships, cannot help but be predicated on DISHONESTY.

Creating an uncomfortable REALITY, for which we may have to answer for someday...
Before God and to Them...

Relational INTEGRITY means that the World needs to see the Fullness of Christ, through our lives, not just the most desirable part of Him.

Not ONLY Law and Not ONLY Grace

Not every "ner-do-well" is an unrecognized Jean Valjean, and not every one who insists on holding them accountable is a heartless Javert.*

GRACE is meaningless without the LAW and the LAW is impossible without GRACE. 

* The two primary protagonists in Victor Hugo's brilliant novel: "Les Miserables" Jean Valjean spent 19 years on prison (initially) for stealing bread for his sister's starving children. Javert, the police inspector arrested Jean Valjean and sent him to prison.

Marginalizing Truth or Love

It's no more Christ-like to marginalize "Truth" in the name of "Love" and "Human Compassion," than it is to marginalize "Love" in the name "Truth" and "Biblical Principles."

To LOVE like Christ, for others, is not up for debate. To proclaim the TRUTH(s) of Christ cannot be up for debate either. 

It would appear within the contemporary Christian community, that there is just as much of a CRISIS with the Hermeneutics of Biblical love, as there has been with the Hermeneutics of Biblical Truth.

God is Holy and We Are Not; And EVERY man must come to terms with this fact...

Moreover (and for this we will be held accountable), God has tasked the Christian to tell the world, lovingly, of this Great and Terrifying Truth.

Unconditional Love and Uncompromising Truth

Unconditional Love is ultimately irrelevant outside the context uncompromising Truth.

Uncompromising Truth is tragically inaccessible with out unconditional Love.

No Voice Allowed

Consider this: 

The national and social media dialogue regarding Christians and CAF Event, seems to be swirling primarily around the nature of the "Christian Voice" that was spoken Thursday; and how it was heard/perceived by gay community. 

Assuredly, A very important and fair concern...

There is however, in the backdrop, a much larger cultural issue here, that teeters (dangerously?) on a nodal point of enormous distinction... And that is:

Whether Christians should even have a VOICE at all...

The Reality in Not Offending Anyone Ever

Naïveté - Denial - Absurd - Poliannic and Resolution (in Tension)

The time-space continuum occupied those who believe that competing Wordviews and Values (while thoroughly maintaining their uniqueness and integrity) can still co-exist without offending someone, somewhere at some time.

Love... It Isn't ALL That We Need

If Christians continue to back away... and continue to back away... from Biblical Truths, in order not to offend, at some point who's going to want to hear what we have to say anyway? 

The thing that makes Christianity truly DISTINCTIVE from all other Faiths in the world, is not just our capacity for Love, but our ability to authentically IMITATE the FULLNESS of Jesus Christ in our lives.

The practice (DOING) of Love in the world is not a particularly unique thing in any faith...

The genuine and whole expression, of the incarnational presence (BEING), of Christ in us... IS.

Right "Doing" doesn't always mean right "Being."

But, right "Being" ALWAYS means right "Doing."