How to love people as Jesus did?
#1 Don’t judge.
Jesus told us that we were to love others. It is repeated often in the letters to the Churches.
How do you do that? It is difficult. Here are a few of the things I see in Jesus’ life. The list is not exhaustive. (More in subsequent post)
1. Don’t judge people. Don’t judge their actions, attitudes or beliefs. Their standards may be different from yours. Many of those “right or wrong” things are set by our culture as much as anything else. Of course, we all think our list of right or wrong is the right one and the only one based on the Bible. That is questionable. In America today we have multiple cultures, even among white middle-class Christians, there is a great variety of cultures and many lists of right and wrong.
Not judging people does not mean we agree with them or even approve. It is simply giving them the right to chose. Jesus gives them that right. I simply chose to live by my standards and give them the right to live by theirs. You are free to make your own moral choices. You should. But you cannot force your moral choices on others.
I remember in college (Early 60’s in a Baptist school) we had a Professor from France. As you would expect, He loved his wine. Of course, the administration went bonkers. He was equally upset by all the men at church who stepped outside to have a smoke between Sunday School and church. He said they would be kicked out of church for smoking if they were Baptist in France. He only taught one year.
Besides, Jesus said we would be judged with the same standard we judge others. If you are like me you need a lot of Grace. Treat people with Grace. Those outside the church often see us as very judgmental. If we reflect Jesus, we will become known as people of love and acceptance which is what many in our society are looking for. Jesus accepted people with very different moral standards than his own. He accepted people of different cultures. He lived and had much of his ministry in the more Gentile (non-Jewish) influenced section of his country. You never get the sense that those he associated with felt rejected or judged. You don’t invite someone to a party if you think they are going to take the fun out of the party.
The only people Jesus tended to judge seems to be the Pharisees who were the religious leaders of the time. He opposed them because they seem to have been hypocritical and placed religious burdens on people that kept them away from God rather than bringing them closer to God. Most of their “religion” was for show and extremely legalistic. He also seemed to have really got upset with the people in charge of Temple worship who made a profit from religion. Reflecting on those two things should throw fear into a lot of us “religious” people.
To love people as Jesus did become known as a loving accepting person rather than one who is judgmental.
People seemed to have been changed more by Jesus’ accepting, non-judgmental attitude than by condemnation. He always tried to lift them up and show them the possibility of a better life rather than condemning them and pushing them down.
When we judge people we are reminding them of the negatives in their life. When we lovingly accept people we are reminding them of what they can become. Most of us spend too much time in the darkness of guilt. We need someone to remind us that we can become more than we are at this point in our existence. We need to be reminded that we are not defined by our past actions but by our potential.
Judging someone causes them to wilt. Love and acceptance helps them bloom.