It’s probably one of the best known verses, that verse in John 3:16. I’m sure you know it, but in case you don’t:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 ESV
Whoever believes in Him. That’s all it needs. A belief in Him.
And yet, so often, when we look at Christianity, when we look at the church, it feels like it needs more.
I don’t know where it comes from, that pressure to perform or to act a certain way. I don’t know who first started it, and I don’t know if anyone actually truly believes it. Maybe, or hopefully, nobody in the church would actually say it needs certain acts or behaviour for us to be saved.
Maybe some do.
But even if nobody actually would agree with such a statement, somehow it still seems like we all need to do certain things to be saved.
It’s those unspoken expectations that seem to be put on people so often when they walk into a church, or interact with Christians.
It’s unnamed expectations I might have for myself, and therefore maybe I subconsciously have them for others, too.
But you know, there are verses that are following that one specific verse that is so often quoted.
It goes on to say: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17 ESV)
Even when we condemn ourselves, and condemn others, based on the behaviour we see, that is not what Jesus came to do.
Jesus came, so that we might be saved. He did not come to condem us.
Why then, do we so often feel like we are being condemned when we walk into church? Why do we so often condemn others? Why do I judge their behaviour and what their faith must be liked based on the actions we have just witnessed? I don’t do it out loud, mind you. I only it that in the secrecy of my soul.
But Jesus did not come to condemn. He came to save.
He came, so that we might believe in Him, who has paid the price for our condemnation. So that we may no longer be condemned.
How do we escape that condemnation? It’s not by acting more holy, or behaving better, or showing more kindness.
No. It’s by believing.
We escape condemnation by believing in the Son of God.
When we believe, our actions might change, our behaviour might change, and we might become more kind.
But all that doesn’t change because it will save us, but because we are saved.
Let faith transform our actions.
– Martha
Saved by faith alone.
So if the Son of God didn’t come to condemn us, but so that we might have faith, then let us not condemn others.
Let the church not condemn based on behaviour or actions they see.
Let me, Martha, rise up and not condemn, but lovingly point to the One in whom we should place our faith: Jesus Christ.
Let us, Christian women, rise up and be an example of the center of Christianity: Faith in Jesus Christ.
And let that faith transform us. Let faith transform our actions.
