Broccoli in Teeth.

"Now go and sin no more."

We call it love.

We call it grace.

We call it mercy.

We call it many things, but we do not call it what it is -- sin -- because we are afraid to actually call it out.

We shrug it off.

We brush it away.

We laugh it aside.

But we do not call it out.

Our brother or sister in Christ, standing there in their sin, and still we leave them be.

Because we are afraid of relationship.  Afraid of retribution.  Afraid of ruffling feathers.

Are we not also afraid of leaving someone in their sin?

Both sins of omission or sins of commission.

The Bible very clearly shares the story of Jesus speaking to the adulterous woman, loving her in her sin, but then freeing her of her sin by admonishing it and then instructing her to walk away from it.

"Now go and sin no more" speaks Jesus in John 8:11.

As Christ-followers, we are called to come along side others to make them more like Christ, to challenge them to be imitators of him, holy and dearly loved.

And yet we so often let this act of pruning, this iron sharpening, this willful growing, instead become slothful disobedience to his command to lend others become more like Christ.

We let them sit with their selfishness, their blatant choices, their blaring decisions.  We let them ease away from hard-work, service, and sacrifice.  We let them speak slander, mock purity, and store up storehouses of sinking treasures.

Becoming like Christ can often come through pain and discourse, scratching and squeezing.  It is uncomfortable to be molded, or whittled, like clay pots or broken trees.

Yet we let our loved ones lie.  Leaving them in their sin, their selfishness.  We call it many things, but we do not call it out, or call it sin.

We allow instead, fellowship as a false facade.  Relationships teetering to keep harmony in tact.  Passivity disguised as kindness.  Fear displayed as meekness.  Enabling masked as caring. Trepidation hiding truth.

All the while, leaving our fellow Christ-follower living in their sin, like having broccoli in their teeth.


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Read more:
Speak the Truth [in Love].
Truth in Relationships.
Slow to Speak.
* Note: good discussion regarding the difference between "hurt" and "harm" in the Boundaries book by Henry Cloud and John Townsend
** Broccoli in teeth analogy taken from Amber Porter, speaking at Every Little Step; Church at Charlotte, November 2016.