Statements

1. Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
2. . . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
3. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
4. What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you.
5. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices.
6. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
7. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
8. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body.
9. Do not judge, or you will be judged. For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

   Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

10. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
11. But God has composed the body and has given greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.
12. When they continued to question Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.” And again He bent down and wrote on the ground.

    When they heard this, they began to go away one by one, beginning with the older ones, until only Jesus was left, with the woman standing there. Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.”

13. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
14. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.
15. Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; save them from the hand of the wicked.

The above statements are quotations from the Bible. I have a few of my own.

1. No one knows what transpires between a soul and God at the point of death.
2. Only God decides on the eternal fate of each soul. As a God who is holy, all knowing, all loving and all wise, He will make the right call.
3. After individual acts of sin have become an addiction it affects our understanding of the culpability of the sinner.

After something as mind-blowing as the recent revelation of the wrongdoing of a key Christian leader happens, we try to find an overarching narrative that seeks to do justice to the facts (as we know them) in the light of all the biblical injunctions that guide us. Often we end up with a narrative that seems too harsh or too easy on the person and on what happened. Perhaps we shouldn’t be too quick to construct that final statement. Perhaps we should live with the tension of the various biblical truths for a while, uncomfortable as that is.

I am not saying we don’t begin to learn lessons and it is difficult to not have some preliminary constructs to help us to begin to understand what happened. And those in positions of authority have to make decisions and judgement calls. But maybe we should first learn to live with and be humbled by God and His truth. Of course God knows the truth, and sometimes that may have to be enough even as we seek a way forward.