"And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him."
In today's lesson, Jesus exposed the hypocrisy of the Jewish spiritual leaders as they falsely accused Him of breaking the sabbath by healing the infirm woman.
Sadly, many of us today are guilty of the same hypocritical offense when we call out the sins of our neighbors while we too bear the guilt of sin.
Our scriptural duty and commandments, in the order in which they are to be performed, are to love God with all that we are, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and to be a continuously shining and open testimony to the love and grace of God. Nowhere in the bible either demands, or authorizes us to be the sin police. Those who live outside the grace of God do so of their own accord and have already been judged by God the Father. It is NOT our place to judge anyone as those Jewish leaders tried to falsely judge Jesus. ~
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