Making choices can be a hassle. Making right choices can be unbearable. As children of the Most High KING, we are called to higher standards than the world. Among other things, we are to hold one another accountable through love for our thoughts and actions, even if the world mocks us and turns against us. We are called to encourage and to help our siblings through this life. However, we are not to be held accountable for their choices.
We have all been given the choice of free will. What we chose is exactly that- OUR choice. We have to remember that is everyone's choice whether or not they accept HIM. It is their choice what they wear, what they think, what they do, what they believe, and what they don't believe. We have no right to force someone else to follow our beliefs or to hold someone who does not share them accountable to our beliefs. When we do, we become like the very people we condemn- we become like the terrorists (this comparison is fully my belief and opinion, one that everyone has the right to agree or disagree with). When we force someone else to follow our beliefs, we take away their free will, something that is their birth right. When we make laws enforcing our beliefs, we are taking away their right to chose as well as forcing them to follow their own beliefs in fear. We become like Iran, like Saudi Arabia, like many other countries.
Yes, we are to tell others about our LORD but we are to do so in love, in patience, in kindness, in deeds. We are to be CHRIST on this earth and CHRIST did not force people to love HIM nor to follow HIM. HE has given everyone the right and the will to chose or deny HIM as they please. When people chose to deny HIM, we are still to love them. We are still to be an example to them in our lives and we are still to tell others about HIS love and HIS sacrifice.
When someone makes a wrong choice and that person was/is a sibling in CHRIST, we are to pray, to love, and to forgive them. We are also to hold them accountable before GOD for every action has a consequence, be it good or bad. We are also to hold them accountable to the laws of this world for being an adopted child does not give anyone the right to ignore the laws of the society they chose to live in. It might mean that those people hate you and turn against you, it might mean that friends turn away and abandon you, it might mean that no one agrees with you. This reaction does not exclude you from the responsibility of doing what is right by GOD's standards.
In the end, each one of us will be called individually before the High JUDGE. There we will be asked about each and every one of OUR choices and OUR decisions, not someone else's. There is no group trial or group judgement or group mercy. We will be held individually accountable for what we have decided to do or not to do on this earth. We will not be held accountable for someone else's deeds as those deeds were their choice to make. Even then, our actions can not redeem us as only HE, son of the living GOD, can redeem us and give us mercy. All we do is to hope that at the end, standing covered and made worthy in HIS blood, we hear "well done, good and faithful servant."
