22 And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. 23 Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.
These two verses are packed full of things that we are called to do that are sometimes very difficult. First we must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. This tells me we need to be patient with those who are just learning about Christ and take the time to disciple them. Second when it says rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment this tells me that we must be out spreading the Gospel Message and then spending time with them after they accept Christ. Then there is the third thing, show mercy to still others. This can be the difficult part showing mercy to those whose hearts are hard and eyes are scaled because these are the people who don’t like you much and would love to make life miserable for you. We are still called to show mercy to them, we don’t have to go on vacation with them but we do need to show them mercy. At the end of verse 24 we are left with a caution which I think has two meanings. One is when we go to these people that we are not influenced by their sins, we need to make sure we protect ourselves from taking part in the things that they do. We need to put on God’s word much like a HAZMAT suit before we go in so we don’t get contaminated. Because remember it’s our job to go in. Christ came to earth and was not effected by all the sin around us. He should be our modle. Then the other meaning has to do with the old saying hate the sin and not the sinner. If you go in with the purpose of sharing the Gospel hating the person you are sharing it with I don’t think you are going to be very successful in fact you will do more damage than not going in at all. So before you do anything it is essential to cover yourself with God’s word so that you can be protected and effective.
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