MONDAY MEDITATION: So, Stop It (June 3)

So stop judging each other. Instead, this is what you should decide: never put a stumbling block or obstacle in the way of your brother or sister. — Romans 14:13

Paul wrote these words to a church where people disagreed with each other over what was correct or not regarding food. There were some who didn’t have a problem eating anything. There were others who upheld Jewish dietary laws and/or refused to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols.

Paul was in the first group, and he never tried to persuade those in the other group to think or act like him. Indeed, he went so far as to not eat things that would offend them whenever they had lunch together.

All this may sound pretty ancient, which it is. Yet how many of us want to convince others to come over to our way of thinking? And how many times may we make inner judgments about them if they don’t?

I really get tired of the social media posts, either conservative or liberal, that insinuate that there’s something wrong with you if you don’t agree with them.

What’s important isn’t where you stand on an issue as much as it is how you convey where you stand. If we love as Jesus loves, we won’t come across as a televangelist on a bad day. We’ll say what we have to say, but in a way that doesn’t demean others if they don’t agree. It’s never where you stand on an issue as much as it is how you stand with the person you’re talking to.