Admonish one another out of love...

So many well intended people who claim to be Christians and claim to know the Bible will say, "don't judge cause its says so in the Bible". Agree. But if they did read the Bible for themselves they would know this: "...we urge you, brothers/sisters, to admonish (rebuke/reprimand) the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and be patient with everyone" ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:14."

"He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ" ~ COL 1:28. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts" ~ COL 3:16. 

Why admonish? So that we who are in need (weighed down by sin) can be made holy by putting on a new self in Jesus Christ. The prodigal son did not return home with his dirty habits: a duffel bag of porn, a few hookers, a bottle of booze and his live in lover saying here I am dad. He went in humility, seeking forgiveness, REPENTING!

Here is the difference between judging and admonishing... Admonishing (rebuking/reprimanding) is a means to correct pointing out the sin that weighs them down. This is thus a way to recuse, to lift up in fact out of the mire. It is a way to point someone weighed down by sin in the right direction. So, when we see that someone is weighed down by sin no matter how terrible it seems to us, we are not to walk away from it. 

We are to go and help them get out of it; essentially deliver them. Judging is threatening to throw someone to the lake of fire so that they will behave themselves as if that threat is enough. We as Americans judge too much and we don't admonish enough. Again, most people don't want to admonish out of fear of being admonished. They are comfortable in their sin even to the point of liking their sin rather than the light which is Jesus Christ.

Remember, Jesus said, the gate is narrow...why? Because the only way to the Father is by Him - Jesus Christ. His Word is truth and it is life!