It was so refreshing seeing ladies come together on the timeline and express their views based on the question put out there to them.
The main question in the Q&A was:
How do we eradicate the fear of 'being judged' by others in the church?" with the hash tag #askLWF
Fellowship can be done in so many different ways; social media being a big part of that - we'll definitely be doing more of these in the future as it's important for us to come together and speak about what affects us, and how we can overcome as women on a journey with Christ.
Don't forget to follow us on Twitter is you haven't!
>>>>>>> @ladyfellowship
We also received an incredible email response from our fellow sister Nneoma:
The first issue as the question rightly identified is that there's a "fear" of judgement in the church. However, the Bible in 2 Timothy 2:7 tells us that the spirit of fear is not from God, but that he has given us "the spirit power & of love & of a sound mind". So the first thing that we need to do in response to the question is cast down that spirit of fear and bring it into captivity & to the obedience to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5). Secondly, people in the church need to have their mind renewed by the reading of God's word on what judgement actually is. I believe that it is the common misconception of judgement that causes and spreads the fear of it.
Contrary to ideal belief of judgment being wrong, the Bible in (Matthew 7:1-5), actually teaches us how to judge people. Matthew tells us that the way to do this is by first dealing with personal sins in our own lives so that we can see clearly in order to point out the sin in our brethren's life for them to deal with. So in the church we are charged to judge each other righteously (John 7:24), which means according to God's standards and rules revealed in His logos word. Additionally, the next issue with this is that if we as believers judged ourselves then others wouldn't have to. (Read 1 Corinthians 11:31). The Apostle Paul goes on to tell us in 1 Corinthians 13:5 to examine ourselves to prove that we are still in the faith- that is to say, to see that we are still in right standing with God's word and His perfect will.
Remember the world is already judged, so that's not our job. In most of my experiences, what most people class as judgement is actually correction. For example, i have been in a situation where an old friend of mine suddenly picked up smoking as a new habit. I talked with her & advised her to quit because smoking kills. It's sad to say that she didn't take the sound advice very well & felt like I was judging her by merely correcting her of something she already knew was wrong. In this day and age some people might class what I said as judgement but did I judge her or did I just read out what the packet of her cigarettes says? Also is it "judgement", if it is the absolute truth? It has become a cliche in the church to say "only God can judge me", but people don't truly understand what that means. God's judgement is FINAL & JUST! This should put the fear of God in us.
Therefore, it is better to have someone judge us here on earth whilst there is still time to change; than have the holy & righteous God do it. The great benefit of being judged is to be corrected as it says in 1 Corinthians 11:32: “... when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” This is the ultimate reason why we should receive righteous judgement within the body of Christ. Let us be reminded that The Lord chastens(corrects) who he loves, so also are we to correct people out of love. If I didn't love my friend I would have left her to smoke until it eventually kills her, after all it doesn't affect me right? But that should not be our attitudes as Christians & as preachers of the Word, we are to tell people in what ways their lives are wrong; whether that truth is welcomed or unwelcomed.(G. Craige Lewis). For when we do this as the Bible says we save people from the fire(Jude 1:23).
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