Reflection for Saturday, Feb 9, 2008

Romans 2: 1-16

Do you not realize that God?s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (2:4)

While Paul's tone is harsh here, I think the message is so important. He echoes the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:1, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged."

It's easy to hear this as, don't do it because you wouldn't want someone to do it to you. But I hear it as, God has forgiven you! That's the "good news"! So don't judge someone because God has forgiven them and if you judge someone else it means you've probably forgotten that God has already forgiven you, too! Who cares about judging someone else when we know that we are forgiven, that we are okay?

For a long, long time, the Church has put the message out in such a way that most often we only feel bad about ourselves. But that's a mistake. God's Grace has already forgiven us. My experience is that when someone has been kind to me, I feel much better and am more likely to be kind to someone else. I think that is what Paul is getting at in this verse.

I'm glad to be blogging with all of you!

In peace,
Paul