One of the things that has been continually impressing itself on my mind this year is how I treat people - and when I say "people", it is not the people that I like or enjoy. It is everyone else, the masses that I encounter on a daily basis and the people who I do not always like or enjoy. And the people who, although they may actively be opposed to me, are opposed to what I believe.
Here is the thought that has started to haunt me: Jesus died for them as well.
Now, one can make the argument that just because Christ died for them does not mean that people accept His offer of salvation. Which is true, of course - but that does not change the fact that He did so for all of mankind.
But the other reality is that we do not know when people will be saved.
We never know when someone may make a decision for Christ, what circumstances or word or person may bring that awakening of the Spirit to their lives. What we can definitively know is that if we are acting like the world or - more d*mning - acting like a Pharisee, we are likely not moving the needle at all. We are not acting like Christ - Christ, the one who died for all.
I have to confess that this sort of thing is hard for me. There are some people and some situations that I struggle to see the people that Christ died for. I have to pray for the ability to see them as Christ sees them.
I am not always successful in this.
But I have to remind myself that in my wanderings and the years that I was far from God, Christ still died for me. How can I treat people less than others treated me during that time, let alone God?
It is a bit of a stretch this week for kindness, but kindness is wrapped up in how we treat people. I think of the sinners that Christ addressed: those that were truly questioning or working through the words He said to them.
He treated them with kindness. I wonder if He thought about His coming crucifixion and how He would die for them along with everyone else.
I need to see - and treat - people more like that. After all, our Example did no less.
I often have to remind myself that kindness isn't bestowed only when I think people earn it. I'm to freely give it to everyone I encounter. Kind of like how God gives grace to us. I'm not saying I've perfected this, but it's what I work on.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, that is the same realization that has imprinted itself on my mind this year well. And yes, I have not perfected it either.
DeleteA well wrought post this Sunday TB, food for thought. Have a bit of trouble remembering this principle with a person screaming at me because I don't think like them. Got a bit more work to....adjust my thinking.......(sigh).
ReplyDeleteThanks Nylon12!
DeleteI understand the challenge. Mine is the same - and yet, I realize (somewhere internally) that if that is how everyone reacts to each other, how unusual it would be to react with kindness.
Friday, I saw a guy trying to push himself in a hospital transport chair. I'm using a walker right now myself. No one in the clinic made an effort to help. I wobbled over and said, "Where to brother?" We talked a bit. Liver cirrhosis, long time biker, rough, patina surface ;), possible transplant candidate.... AND recent addition to God's Kingdom through Jesus!! Worship and fellowship followed. "I wish I'd found Jesus sooner...." You just never know when God will drop a nugget like that.
ReplyDeleteWow STxAR. What an example of this in action.
Delete"Rough patina surface." I have to work on my outer impressions of folks all the time.
Well said.
ReplyDeleteThanks John!
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