1 Peter 4
Key Verse: 1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply because loves covers over a multitude of sins.
Christianity is not a restaurant and the bible is not a menu. You don’t get to pick and choose what you want and when you want it. You can’t choose one verse to judge or condemn someone and then another to set you free.
You have no right to hate anyone for any reason. You have a right to disagree. You have a right to not participate. you even have the right to an opinion. You DO NOT have a right to not love one another (1 Peter 4:8), not to offer hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9), or not offer grace to one another (1 Peter 4:10).
Jesus didn’t just hang with other Christians and shun everyone else. As a matter of fact, the only people he shunned and rebuked were the hypocritical, holier than thou, religious leaders. Read that again! THE. RELIGIOUS. LEADERS.
Wow! Hold the bus! You mean Jesus didn’t go around hating on the sinners? Nope! He hung out with them. He loved them. He showed them what being a Christian was supposed to look like, LOVE not hypocrisy!
There is a good reason the story of the woman brought to him by those so-called “religious leaders” is in the gospel of John (8:1-11). They came to ask him to condemn her. He chose to teach them a lesson on grace, love, and forgiveness.
We have been on both sides of the fence in this story. We have been the woman so ashamed we thought for sure even Jesus himself would turn his back on us. We have also been the religious leaders, poised with a stone high above our heads ready to pounce and judge someone else.
Jesus offered grace, love, and forgiveness to the woman. He also offered it to the religious leaders. He gave them a chance to walk away from their lives. He told them to go ahead, throw that stone, but you better be darn sure you have no issues in your life because you will be next. However, walk away now, recognize your own faults and grace, love, and forgiveness are yours also.
Where do you stand today? Are you going to throw that stone or are you going to accept your own need for grace, love, and forgiveness? The best way to receive it is to offer it yourself.
