Colossians 3:12-13

Since God chose you to be the Holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. -Colossians 3:12-13

Interestingly enough for me, I hear very few exhortations to be kind and gentle. If you’re a believer, you’re likely to hear, often: be generous, evangelize more, stand up for your faith, prayer more. But be kind and gentle? I think that may have gotten lost along the way.

There are no worldly benefits to kindness. It makes you easy to take advantage of. If you treat people with gentleness you will be burned and hurt by their reaction. But it’s there in the Bible so we do it. It’s how our master worked and lived.

In all honesty, the biggest thing that keeps me from being kinder is my schedule. It’s so packed that I often don’t have time to stop for the person in front of me or for really finding out how the people around me are doing. It’s hard to be kind when you’re emotionally torqued. I need to slow down more, daily, and let me roots go deep into Jesus. 

It Doesn't Take a Prophet to See Sin

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is - that she is a sinner.”

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” 

"Tell me, teacher," he said. -Luke 7:39-40 (NIV)

I find these verses are a key paradigm shift for most people. Most of us think exactly the way Simon does - that hearing from God means seeing someone’s sin. That if you see with God’s eyes, then we are dirty, filthy, and dreadfully sinful. They are afraid of getting too close to God for exactly this reason. However, God is standing in the room, and he has different thoughts. Yes he sees the sin but he sees much more than that. He sees beyond the sin and into her transformation and love.

Simon thinks exactly like most people do today - that God sees us principally with our sin. That it takes God to see our sin. However, it doesn’t take a prophet to see sin - in fact, most people can see it and everyone in that room knew the kind of woman that was there. What does take God’s perspective for is to see deeper into the person, to see what God’s plans for them are and to call them to it.

This is my favorite part of being a believer - in Christ, we can pray and see things that do not yet exist in the physical. We can see what God is calling people to, not just what they are or what they’ve done. We can see with the eyes of heaven and have hope where others have none.

 

Love is Having Difficult Conversations

Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything in love. -1 Corinthians 16:13-14

The thing that immediately hits me is that you need to be firm in your faith, courageous, and strong in order to love. It’s like the first part is preparing you for the second. Once you are grounded and strong, you can love more.

Love is risk. Love is having difficult conversations with people when they don’t want to hear it. Love is courageous because you don’t know if you’ll be loved back. You are sticking your emotions out there and don’t know if it will be returned.

As the boss, love is having those difficult conversations when the situation is small and before it gets out of hand and their job is on the line. I have to meet with a team member this week because he is showing too many signs of pride and isn’t getting along with the rest of the team. I don’t want to, but love is pointing out what I see now and giving him the opportunity to change rather than waiting for it to get bad enough to fire him.

As a ministry partner, love is standing in the gap and speaking the truth even when I don’t want to. To really show love, I have to stand up, against the other missionaries and on behalf of the Mozambicans. We have a train-wreck of a situation that’s about to happen with the school we are starting - there is a high possibility we’ll start in January with just 8 kids unless a massive shift happens in the core team’s thinking. I don’t want to fight the rest of the team, but in this situation, love looks like calling out the situation for what it is and fighting for the poorest before the problem metastasizes. Running away or staying silent is easy and it won’t work. What is difficult is prayerfully building relationships and finding what I can say to each person to make them realize the situation.

God, give me strength today. Teach me courage, for I want to show real love.

 

Jesus Asks for Mercy Over Sacrifice

When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” -Matthew 9:12-13

Fascinating verse, particularly because mercy is an after-thought in many US churches. Sacrifice is held in quite high esteem - moving chairs, serving in the sound booth, children’s ministry, tithing, etc. What if we asked all the church volunteers if they showed mercy during the week before they started serving?

Mercy: You are owed something but you either delay getting it back or cancel the debt. Sacrifice: You are giving something of yourself for someone else or for a cause. Interestingly enough, mercy must be applied to other people - you can’t really be merciful to yourself and you can’t be merciful to God because He owes you nothing... However, sacrifice can be for yourself, God or others. It doesn’t even need to involve other people - you can be sacrificing for a cause.

I think this aspect of mercy is fascinating. Why are we so good at sacrifice and so terrible at mercy? So good at giving things up but so bad at giving things up for others? Jesus consistently talks about how we can show love to God through our interactions with others.

God, help me to see with your eyes, and give you want you are looking for, not what I want to give.