In this episode, Mark and Emily kick off a brand new series called Since We Tolerate, a look at the "respectable sins" Christians often overlook or excuse. They start with one of the most culturally relevant: judgment. Drawing from Romans 14, Mark unpacks how Christians can fall into a pattern of casting judgment on brothers and sisters in areas where scripture doesn't demand a single answer, and what it looks like to pursue edifying love instead.
Episode Highlights
00:34 — Introducing the new series: Since We Tolerate and the idea of "respectable sins"
01:13 — Why Christians often tackle the obvious sins but miss the subtle ones
01:57 — The framework for the series: a four-part process for killing sin
03:26 — Defining the process: remember the gospel, remember your identity, starve the sin, feed the spirit
05:13 — Introducing the sin of judgment and its grounding in Romans 14
06:12 — The Jewish-Gentile tension in the early church as the original context for Romans 14
08:10 — What makes a matter "gray" — and why gray doesn't mean unimportant
10:26 — Judgementalism as a "crowning vice of modernity," amplified by social media and cable news
13:33 — When judgment is right: distinguishing disputed matters from clear biblical teaching
17:00 — Diagnosing a judgmental heart: the BAM vs. WAM test (Best Available Motive vs. Worst Available Motive)
21:28 — Practical steps to starve the sin: study it, hate it, flee it, confess it
27:00 — Feeding the spirit: cultivating edifying love as the antidote to judgment
30:34 — A preview of the next episode: gluttony
Resources
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