Psalm 85:8 I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
It is amazing how much folly there is in the Lord’s church today. There is such worldliness and tolerance of unbiblical practices and traditions that it is appalling. Yet you can see that at least some of these people want to be known as Christians and to appear to stand for something.
The Laodicean church of Revelation chapter 3 was still discernibly a “Christian” church. We see that God did and does still love them and want them to repent for He says in Revelation 3:19, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. And, this despite the fact that He had just told them they were, “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”! (Rev. 3:17)
Though we cannot join them nor approve their ways it behooves us to remember that “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth”! (Hebrews 12:6 – emphasis added.) He does still love these believers and desires to see them turn from folly. Those who try to avoid the spiritual “pollutions of the world” (2 Peter 2:20) should too. Rather than feeling self-righteous, we should be grieved and our hearts should hurt to see those whom God loves walking in ways that are contrary to His word. Sometimes it is hard because they don’t understand the error of their ways and are offended if we extend a rebuking observation toward them, but it is keeping with the mind of Christ for us to maintain godly love toward them.
1John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
Worldly Christians can be very hard to get along with - they would rather persecute or mock or feel offended at Christians who take the view we should be separated from the world, rather than accepting the 'stricter' point of view. We must remember to not be judgemental in return, and to love the people and not their sins, even as God loves us but not our sins!
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