living together-ness

I have been surrounded lately by folks who have decided to live together before or instead of marriage. At first I was angered...and justly so. But now I realize that my anger came only from my inability to perceptualize like them (a word I made up that means 'to see through their eyes'). I mean to give no justification for cohabitation. What I am realizing is that there is such a hunger for acceptance and community that is not being met in people today that these hurting folks are turning to unholy unions with others to find both of the missing pieces from their lives. It is my hope, and I believe the plan from God as described in the Bible, that people would find these two first in a relationship with God, secondly in a relationship with God's Church, and thirdly in relationships with those not in God's Church (When I say God's Church I mean all people who are living in a relationship with God and meeting together. I do not mean a specific 'church' as is commonly understood in Western culture).

I fear that we the Church have focused so much on finding, pointing out, and eliminating sins that we have alienated the sinner. We have forgotten that we ALL are sinners who can ONLY be saved by Grace which comes ONLY from God. Jesus loves the sinners. Don't forget that. Jesus does not love you more simply because you love him more. He loves that gay-communist-leftist-environmentalist-whateverist just as much as he loves holy-saint-you.

Now back to living together-My plea to the church is that we remember to have compassion on those who are living this chosen lifestyle. Remember that God does not see cohabitation as the culmination of all abominable sins (desanctifying marriage, fornication, adultery, etc.) rather, God looks at the people and has compassion on them as Jesus did so so many times in the Gospels.

Consider this: how many more times did Jesus compassionately reach out to the lost than he congratulated the found?