August 21, 2016

There Will Come A Day of Judgement, But Today Is Not That Day

There will come a day of Judgement, but today is not that day...

10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. (John 8:10-12)

There will be a time for judgment, but today is not that day. Even Christ put off judgment while he was ministering upon the earth. "...Neither do I condemn thee..." However, he did say, "Go and sin no more." Calling sin a sin is not judging, it is a warning, a second chance, an opportunity to save ourselves from that time when judgment will become necessary. It is not our place to judge others, but it is our responsibility as brothers and sisters to warn each other with all the love that Christ would give in such warnings. No more, no less. Go and sin no more.

Because of Christ, this life became a probationary state, a time to prepare to meet God.(Alma 12:24) Thus, our hope is well placed in Christ for he has given us the gift of learning from our mistakes and removing from us the burden of administering justice. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors..." (Matthew 6:12) When it comes right down to it, to forgive our debtors may be the hardest lesson we learn before we stand before the judgement seat of Christ. 

I believe the difference between warning and condemning is loving. Remember we did not earn the right to judge. We did not take the stripes, or experience the weight of justice baring down on us. And our capacity to love enough to judge is just not there. We have no authority to condemn our brothers and sisters, that burden was taken from us when Christ atoned for our sins. Impersonating one in authority does not go over well before the judge.