Be Tender with Sinners

 As believers, we need to be compassionate toward all people. Jesus had unconditional love for all people, and we should display the love of Jesus genuinely all of the time. Unfortunately, we are tempted to be rough on other people at times. Jude gave us some good guidelines from the Lord. (Jude 22,23) The devil will try to get us to lose our patience with people. Our flesh will tell us not to spend time helping others, but to help ourselves. Also, we will be angry with people who don't know the Lord, unless we watch out. Let's see what Jude said, so we can treat people right while not being soft on sin, which itself sinks to high heaven.

We must go easy on those people who hesitate in the faith. These are new Christians or fleshly Christians who need to grow strong in the faith. If we are short with them or give them a hard time, we could do more harm that good. We must help them grow by patiently showing them the way. When we see that others have gone the wrong way, we need to go after them. Each soul is so precious to God, and they should be precious to us, worth our time and effort to restore them. Sinners are all around us. They can be very confused and do some very evil things. They do not need condemnation from us. They can't help but sin. It is in their nature to sin. We need to be tender with them, but not be soft on sin. That takes keeping a good balance, but the Spirit will show us how to keep that balance. Yes, sin stinks. We need to hold our nose and reach out to the sinners, whether they are believers who are off-base or non-believers. That is the only way they will be brought to the Lord and remain in His will.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Revelation 1-3.