On Doing the Right Thing II

Monday afternoon, August 18, 2008 [a bit overcast and 85 degrees]
Many years ago, a couple I knew refused to attend their daughter's wedding because they did not believe her fiancé was a Christian. In their minds, their attending the wedding would have put their stamp of approval on the wedding, which they refused to do. Conservatively, that was 20+ years ago, and today that foursome has no relationship whatsoever; in fact, the daughter doesn't even know where her parents live.
For the past several weeks my sermons have been from 1 Peter, the most recent ones having to do with our doing the "right" thing, as we live our Christian lives. Of course, one of the questions that immediately comes is this: How can we know the "right" thing to do? As I am sure you know, that question has no "pat" answer; however, most base it on their notion of keeping the Ten Commandments. For example, if one's interpretation of keeping the commandment that tells us to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy means doing no work on Sunday, then they believe the "right" thing is never to cut grass on Sunday, or never to install a fence on Sunday, or never to operate their business on Sunday, et al.
On the other hand, if his interpretation of that commandments means doing no unnecessary work on Sunday, then he might be found cutting his grass but only if a family member died and visitors are on their way to pay their respects, or he might be found operating his restaurant on Sunday (people have to eat), or he might be found conducting church services on Sunday (the gospel must be preached; for some reason preaching is not considered work by most, anyway), et al.
Of course, there are many passages in the Bible, other than the Ten Commandments, that identify the "right" thing for us to do in virtually every situation. For example, Jesus chose to do the "right" thing and associate with winebibbers and gluttons, so much so, that He was labeled accordingly. Strangely, many Christians have managed to overlook this "right" thing, and steer clear of anything that would even hint that they would associate with such sinful people (of course, most of them overlook the "glutton" portion and seem to do right well with it. Go figure-
You can decide for yourself, if it is "right" for you to work on Sunday, or have sex on Monday, or drink wine on Tuesday, or overeat on Wednesday, or smoke cigars on Thursday, or eat pork on Friday, or associate with sinners on Saturday, BUT this is rather obvious, especially, if you use Jesus' life as an example—JUDGING OTHERS IS NOT THE RIGHT THING TO DO on any day of the week!
Whatever you do, please DO NOT choose to throw your child under the bus and forever lose that relationship because of your foolish judgment of him, her, or them! It simply ain't worth it, especially when your judgment is incorrect—terribly incorrect—and most often that IS the case. I know you won't admit it, but that IS the case, most of the time, which is one of the reasons we are told not to judge.
Preachers, feel free to use this; in fact, you have my permission to act as if you thought-it-up, on your own!