This week, I wanted to be mad. I wanted to point out the glaring faults in others and pay them back for how they made me feel. The nerve! The accusations, the lies, the gross hypocrisy! What they are doing is wrong, and how they treat others is wrong. I want to make sure they KNOW it and are punished accordingly.

“They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” – Titus 1:16 ESV 

I read this verse and thought, “EXACTLY God!!! This is what’s happening! I should post this verse so they know I KNOW.”  That’s hilarious and embarrassing to say. Have you been there? 

I began to read commentaries on this verse to further my point… Matthew Henry’s Commentary says, “There are many who in word and tongue profess to know God, and yet in their lives and conversations deny and reject him.” BOOM. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Right God?? 

I kept reading, highly invested and interested in this topic, and then it happened. I was slapped in the face with conviction as I read the following: 

“Yet let us not be so ready to fix this charge on others as careful that it agree not to ourselves, that there be not in us an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God; but that we be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God, Phil. 1:10, 11.”

The Lord asked me, “How do I treat people who are walking in sin? How have I treated YOU?”

Every time I have realized I am not living what I am preaching, saying, speaking, teaching… God has been gracious to me and has used life to help me see it. Although painful, He is always faithful in bringing me to this understanding, allowing me the choice to repent. 

Be CAREFUL that while you are criticizing others, so ready to fix a guilty charge onto them, you yourself are not allowing wickedness to grow in your heart with accusations and offense. And be honest. The Holy Spirit is no fool. While we can lie to ourselves and others, we cannot lie to the Holy Spirit and think He will fall for our buffoonery. 

Let’s love people—even the ones we want to be mad at and hate. Let’s love them, forgive them, and recognize that Jesus has done this for me and you time and time again.  

Go, girls, let’s be more like Jesus.