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NASB | Luke 6:37 ¶ "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Luke 6:37 ¶ "Do not judge [others self-righteously], and you will not be judged; do not condemn [others when you are guilty and unrepentant], and you will not be condemned [for your hypocrisy]; pardon [others when they truly repent and change], and you will be pardoned [when you truly repent and change]. [Matt 7:1-5] |
Bible Question: A pastor keeps giving a wrong information in his sermon. For example, one day, he said Oprah Winfrey's success results from her Christian faith, so we should live like her. But Oprah is not a Christian but a new age activist who belives there are millions of ways to go to God or to Heaven, rejecting the Bible's teaching that Jesus Christ alone is the only Way to God. Am I "judging" the pastor when saying his idea on Oprah is incorrect? Should I just "forgive" him for whatever misinformation in the sermon? |
Bible Answer: 00123, In addition to the wonderful advice of speaking to your Pastor, here is a ten step procedure for dealing with this situation! 1. Pray through Ephesians 4:9-16 over and over for you and your church. 2. Pray so much for this man that it would embaress you to tell anybody of it, then pray for him some more. Pray specifically that he would be an instrument of fulfilling the previous passage. 3. Pray over your own heart and make sure you are not twisting his words and that you are understanding him rightly. You would be surprised how your own heart can fool you. 4. Re-evaluate the situation after having prayed through it in this way. 5. Study hard to see to the root of his missunderstandings, or simply his general lack of knowledge in scripture and be able to demonstrate the problem with scripture. 6. Take your entire list you just made in step 5 and hold it up to God in prayer, searching it or your heart for any accusations, unbecoming attitudes, or lines of thought which you would not desire somebody to correct you with, and substitute something more loving, more gracious, more kind, and more in line with the gospel of Christ. 7. Pray more. 8. Correct your pastor in private. 9. Pray more. 10. Take your concerns to the church. Clearly I'm being a little playful with the "ten step" thing, but I hope the real counsel is evident. In Christ, Beja |