That was the burning question in the mind of Carlos,* a friend who works as a hair stylist. Lalia and I were alone with him in the salon he has set up in his home. His girlfriend, Claudia,* a professing Christian, had been recently kicked out of her church because she was dating Carlos, a non-Christian.
Claudia had even taught in the Sunday school of her former church. After her expulsion, she imagined her former pastor would communicate her demise to the pastor of our church! (Extremely unlikely in a city with millions of people and thousands of churches.)
Now Carlos and Claudia were wondering, would they be tossed out of our church, too? We feel that they are genuinely seeking spiritual truth, and that’s why we invited them in the first place.
“Will your church judge us?” Wow! Talk about an opportunity to explain the gospel!
Trying to avoid Christian jargon, we told Carlos the good (bad) news that we are all guilty before God. No one measures up to his standard; therefore no one has any basis to judge another! There is no room for human arrogance. Only God can judge us, and he will do that on the basis of our faith in Jesus, his Son, not according to a list of rules written by the church.
We are praying that Carlos and Claudia will keep seeking the truth together (they plan to get married next year), and that in the process they will meet him who is the truth and the life.
* The names have been changed .
