Notes from Vox: Grace before Judgement

Why Jesus Surprised Everyone and What That Means for Us Today

Mike Erre / Andy Lara Link to the Episode

Here’s some of what Mike and Andy talked about in this episode:

The argument that Christians shouldn’t go to gay weddings (and celebrate with the couple) is wrong headed. The worry that we would show our approval of their lifestyle is the opposite of what Jesus worried about, he was more concerned about people knowing that he loved them and that love is what changed his followers.

We don’t have context today for how feasts worked and the criticisms we see of Jesus show that he would have gone to gay weddings today with no qualms.

The encouragement of the episode was to

discern actions, behaviors, and attitudes

within the church and

people you are walking through life with,

​ as someone who knows your sin is worse than theirs.

Don’t discern behavior or condemn those outside the church, why would you expect them to live as you do?

They bring up some obvious retorts, “how will people know what we stand for?” I wont regurgitate them here. Mike also mentioned that we shouldn’t participate in things like this if it may cause us to stumble. as an example he mentioned that XXX Church would purchase vendor space at adult conventions, but he himself couldn’t minister at those events, it would likely cause him to stumble.

So the rule would be when you shouldn’t celebrate at a gay wedding is would be when it is tempting you to reconsider your marriage vows or sin.

In particular I think that Mike said something to the effect of “the grace is the surprise that we are present for people despite the fact that we disagree.”