They were all afraid of him,
not believing that he really was a disciple.
—Acts 9:26
Charles Colson died on April 21, 2012. A Washington Post headline blared: “Charles Colson, Nixon’s ‘dirty tricks’ man, dies at 80.”
I wonder how brightly that journalist’s halo would glow if someone publicized the worst thing he had ever done?
Colson underwent a profound religious transformation in 1973. Doubts about the sincerity of his conversion were put to rest by his subsequent forty years of relentless work for the reclamation of men gone wrong.
The apostle Paul’s conversion was similarly doubted. Christians in Jerusalem shunned him, “not believing that he really was a disciple.”
We all have something in our past that would put the brakes on our acceptance in Christian fellowship if our entire life was measured by it. We don’t want to be judged by a dark side moment.
Nor should we judge others by past failures.
Judging a person on their past without
knowing their future is flawed.