Preventative Medicine

Sitting here in the hospital I can’t help but think about preventative medicine and how it applies to the follower of Jesus.

Now, the kind of preventative medicine I am talking about is not the kind I hear about in the hospital from the medical professionals. I have, recently had conversations with people about some topics that are always hot buttons for both followers of Jesus and those who do not. The discussion always goes to whether or not we embrace people who have made mistakes in their past into our fellowship and the answer is always YES… After all we are all the recipients of immeasurable grace from God in Jesus so we should also be graceful.

What always causes a little dissention in the discussion is when we move on to those who are a part of the fellowship who also don’t see anything wrong with what they do. What I am asking, I guess is: Is there room for some preventative medicine? Are we really able to practice loving the sinner and hating the sin? It seems to me, especially in this fluid post-mod society that we are all too willing to love the sin too, for fear of disenfranchising anyone.

I guess the best example from Jesus would be the time he came across the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). We love the fact that the Pharisees were driven away by their own conscience and guilt, but do we pay as much attention to verse eleven? I know we love the first part “Woman, is there no on here to condemn you? No sir, not one, than neither do I condemn you..” this is a fantastic model for how we should approach someone who has done wrong, but the next statement from Jesus carries as much weight as the grace he bestows when he says, “Go and sin no more.” Jesus provides a little preventative medicine to this woman, so that the next time she will know what she has done is wrong.

We could do well to do the same thing. Many denominational principles are so vague that they cannot possibly provide any preventative medicine. This is done on purpose so we don’t offend anyone (but offending God doesn’t seem to matter here).

Can the followers of Jesus bestow grace upon people the way Jesus did? And, can we also provide the preventative care in a loving manner just like Jesus?