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Article Archive |
2007
Live and Let Die?
by Jim Morris
The old saying used to be, “Live and let live.” I think it was intended to be a plea for tolerance. Mom used to say it a lot when we got into disagreements with the neighborhood kids. After all, we lived on the same block. We should learn to get along.
As Christians, though, embracing tolerance is not enough. Those who are living in opposition to God's revealed way of life need His truth and not just tolerance. To go against his will is to sin. For us to tolerate sin is to “live and let die.” Our holy God will not tolerate sin forever. That is why He will judge the world when He can stand it no more. God the Father will send His Son to judge the world in His righteousness.
Jesus explained, “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-29).
As salt and light in a dark, sinful world, Christians are commissioned to try to persuade men and women to repent of sin and to accept God's truth. We need to help them understand His terms of salvation. We are not to judge the sins of others because that is the Lord's job not ours. After all, if it were not for the grace of God we would be in their shoes! However, we must warn others about the eternal and deadly consequences of sin.
Can't we just “live and let live”? Not if we love the Lord who died for every human on this planet and if we love our neighbors as ourselves. Love demands that we try to free people from sin not encourage them in it by our tolerance. We must fight against sin but love the sinner.
Jesus said to his disciples: “'Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him” (17:1-4).
Perhaps we need the same answer as the apostles when they said to Jesus, “Increase our faith!” (17:5). May we not just “live and let die.”
07-18-07
# 29
