I had a thought today.
I was reading some of Galatians. “1:10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men?” “1:6-7 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel–which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ”.
It’s so interesting to me how easy it is for the gospel to be perverted, specifically in the area of the law/works. We try to earn our salvation instead of just accepting grace.
Of course it’s easy for the devil to convince us of that! Of course! That’s how we relate to one another! Often we require that people behave a certain way or have certain characteristics in order for us to love them. Although simplistic in my realization (not attempting to oversimplify our interactions into black and white completely), I think we should shun this in theory. We attempt to relate to God in the ways that we relate to one another. And we shouldn’t! Why, instead, do we not learn to relate to God correctly…the way he wants us to…and use that as our rule for relating to one another?
I know it isn’t that simple. But I just had the thought today. The follow-up thought to that is…how do you put that into practice while still having standards for behavior, not tolerating mistreatment, knowing that character is important, and realizing we are still responsible for our behavior and treatment of people? I don’t know the answer to that.
Kristin S said,
April 1, 2008 at 9:24 pm
your thoughts remind me of the verse “the lord disciplines those he loves.” i think it’s in hebrews. i think we can still love people and extend grace to them (in our human way, reflecting the way christ loves us) while still correcting them in their sin. he tells us we cannot judge since he is the true judge, but he does ask us to uphold and correct one another in a loving manner.
kristinschaaf said,
April 3, 2008 at 8:37 pm
i posted a comment to this but apparently it didn’t work. anyway, i said this reminds me of the verse in romans that says the lord disciplines those he loves. in the same way, he asks us to love one another as he first loved us. we are not the judge, but we are to lovingly correct, uplift and hold each other accountable. but i suppose this applies to fellow believers. for non-believers, we cannot expect to hold them to any christian standards but live by example and share the power of christ’s love.
jer.harder said,
April 10, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I am well aware of the discplines the ones he loves verse. It is one of the “I wish I hadn’t read that” verses. I am finding a bit of compassion in that discipline. Would he discipline us if he did not see value in our lives? Would he discipline us if we where beyond making a difference in our world for his kingdom?