1 John 2:15-16 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

I have given up trying to know what the law says. Common sense says if you do not know the law, then you are likely to break a law just by being ignorant of it. Did you know that it is illegal to have a woman on your arm in public in certain countries? I found out the hard way. A common curtesy to most of us is an offense to others.

Trying to keep track of all the laws is the job of law makers, not law breakers. They make new laws every day. They even make laws these days which identify what you can do. Since when do we need laws that say we have liberty? Wait, doesn’t the first amendment define the liberty of free speech? Doesn’t the second give us the right to own guns? Oh my, I forgot those were called the Bill of Rights.

Somewhere along the line our rights where no longer as important as our wrongs. Liberty abused is no liberty at all. Once again the law became demanding. We took that which God had given us to expose our own sin nature and condemn our hearts so that we turn to Christ for liberty, and turned them into a punitive penal system. We did that because the love of God was no longer prevalent in the hearts of men.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

John 17:23a I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one;

He who loves perfectly needs not the law.

John 4:16-18 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

Much is said about the woman at the well, but I would ask you to look specifically at how Jesus addresses the woman here. He obviously knew the truth about who she was living with, yet he addressed her with the respect that would have been accorded a married woman. No judgment, no accusation, just a polite request.

Jesus new the truth but rather than reveal His knowledge of her condition, he waited for her to confess her situation. This is a lesson we all should take note of in our relationships with others. We may know or assume a state of sin exists with people we know. They may even not consider it a sin.

So often we have feelings and concerns about the sin nature in others. In this particular case it was the polite conversation that led to confession. What if Jesus had said something more along the lines of “Get the man you are living in sin with and bring him to me.” Do you think the woman would have been inclined to bring her man before anyone that had already judged them both? Probably not.

Yes we want people to be saved. We save no one, God does. Our judgment will only drive them away from the salvation that is offered. Jesus treated her with politeness which was not an example of condoning sin, but rather in placing the situation in a position of trust so that confession could be made.

Being polite does not condone sin, it is grace waiting patiently.